Iranian president: ‘Tiniest invasion’ by Israel will be met with a massive response
At annual military showcase, Ebrahim Raisi hails ‘success’ of country’s weekend missile and drone strike on Israel, as Tehran’s navy commander pledges greater presence in Red Sea
Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, warned on Wednesday that the “tiniest invasion” by Israel would bring a “massive and harsh” response, as the region braces for a potential Israeli retaliation after Iran’s attack over the weekend.
The weekend attack, dubbed “Honest Promise” by Tehran, “brought down the glory of the Zionist regime,” Raisi said at an annual army parade near Tehran on Wednesday, in a speech addressed to the regular army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“This operation showed that our armed forces are ready,” said the president, as his chief naval officer announced he was beefing up security for Iranian commercial ships in the Red Sea as tensions in the vital maritime route persist.
In the first direct volley of the two countries’ decades-long shadow war, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel over the weekend in response to an alleged Israeli strike on Iran’s embassy compound in Syria on April 1 that killed 12 people, including two IRGC generals.
Israel, with help from the United States, the United Kingdom, neighboring Jordan and other nations, successfully intercepted nearly all the missiles and drones, with one person, a 7-year-old Muslim girl, wounded in the attack. Israel has vowed to respond, with military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari saying Tuesday that Iran would not get off “scot-free.”
The annual military parade at which Raisi celebrated the “success” of Iran’s weekend strike on Israel saw the Iranian armed forces showcase a range of military equipment including drones and long-range ballistic missiles.
Among them were multiple versions of the Ababil, Arash and Mohajer drones, as well as the Dezful medium-range ballistic missile and S-300 air defense missile system.
The Wednesday parade had been relocated to a barracks north of the capital, Tehran, from its usual venue on a highway in the city’s southern outskirts. No explanation was given for the event’s relocation, and state television did not broadcast it live, as it has in previous years.
Also on Wednesday, Tehran’s Naval Commander Shahram Irani said that Iran’s navy would escort Iranian commercial ships to the Red Sea, adding that Iran would be prepared to escort ships from other nations, according to the country’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
This year we will conduct several naval exercises and also engage unmanned surface vessels (USVs). — Shahram Irani, Commander of the Iranian Navy pic.twitter.com/jEgntyuAYe
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) August 16, 2023
“The Navy is carrying out a mission to escort Iranian commercial ships to the Red Sea and our Jamaran frigate is present in the Gulf of Aden in this view,” Irani said.
Irani’s comments came a day after the European Union’s naval mission to the Red Sea announced it would require more combat ships. The mission’s commander, Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, added that its operations had not been affected by the Iranian weekend attack on Israel.
Hours before the attack, IRGC forces near the Strait of Hormuz seized MSC Aries, a Portuguese-flagged container ship that Tehran said is linked to Israel.
Other vessels suspected of links to Israel had earlier been targeted in the Red Sea by Iran’s Houthi proxy. The Yemeni rebels say they are acting in support of Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas, triggered by the Iran-backed terror group’s October 7 shock assault on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 kidnapped.
