Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned Israel and the United States of “a crushing response” to actions against Iran and its allies, state media said.

Khamenei, 85, made the comments Saturday while addressing students ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by hardline students — reinforcing the decades-long enmity between Tehran and Washington that continues today .

“The enemies, whether it is the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will certainly receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran, the Iranian nation and the resistance front,” Khamenei said in the capital Tehran, also referring to Iran affiliated armed groups, including the Yemeni Houthis, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas.

The supreme leader did not comment on the timing of an attack or its scope.

He had previously taken a more cautious approach, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated or downplayed” after the Israeli military launched attacks on military bases in Iran last week, including over the course of several hours, approximately twenty locations were affected. Ilam, Khuzestan and Tehran.

Israel said the strikes were in response to attacks by “Iran and its allies.”

Khamenei met with university students on Saturday to mark Students’ Day, which commemorates a November 4, 1978 incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting against the Shah’s rule at the University of Tehran.

The crowd greeted Khamenei with enthusiastic cheers and chanted: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!”

Risk of further escalation

Israel has said its airstrikes on Iran on October 26 were in retaliation for a major ballistic missile attack by Tehran on October 1.

The Iranian attack, involving about 200 rockets, was launched after Israeli attacks in recent months that killed leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian military.

Israel has warned Iran of retaliation, while Tehran, stating it does not seek war, has vowed to respond.

“If Iran makes the mistake of launching another missile attack on Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran … and hit very, very hard,” Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said earlier this week. adding that certain targets had been hit. set aside “because we might have to do this again.”

Any further attacks from either side threaten to draw the region – already in turmoil from Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon – into a wider regional conflict, just days before Tuesday’s US presidential election.

The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery (THAAD) in Israel.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “ordered the deployment of additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadrons and tanker aircraft, and several U.S. Air Force B-52 long-range bombers to the region,” Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said Friday. .

Austin “continues to make clear that if Iran, its partners, or its allies use this moment to attack U.S. personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take all necessary actions to defend our people,” Ryder said in a statement.