Khamenei tells military commanders Iran will respond to any attack without limits

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei convened a high-level meeting of the country's top military commanders and issued a clear warning to the United States and Israel. Tension between Iran and the US-Israel side in West Asia has reached a new and highly explosive turn.

Khamenei said officially that if the US or Israel tried any new military or terror attack, Iran would respond immediately, effectively and very aggressively, without regard to any geographic limit. Addressing the military leadership, he said, "Whatever the form, level or type of the threat, the enemy must get a crushing reply in the same language and without any limit."

According to Khamenei, this strategy of limitless response is an important part of Iran's "Maximum Deterrence Strategy". He said that if the enemy attacked Iran militarily again or hatched a conspiracy, the conflict would not remain confined to defence. When, how and under what circumstances the war ended would be decided by Iran's armed forces and its people. His message was that if a spark was lit, the fire would spread across the region, and the string deciding when the war stops would be in Iran's hands, not those of the US or Israel.

At the meeting, Khamenei laid particular stress on the military's technological and spiritual strength. He gave clear directions to strengthen military intelligence and speed up the development of indigenous defence technology within the country. He also appealed to the armed forces to maintain the spirit of jihad and spiritual strength.

The most important decision of the meeting was to redraw Iran's military "Target Bank". Khamenei ordered the military to keep ready a fresh list of all physical assets of the US and Israel (military bases, ships, weapons) and intangible assets (digital and cyber networks), so that on any move by the enemy, Iranian missiles and drones could precisely hit their key sites.

Alongside military power, Khamenei described public support as the greatest strength of resistance. He praised the presence of people who had come out on their own on Iran's streets and squares over the past eight months. He compared this public sentiment to the struggle seen during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. He expressed confidence that national unity and the public's trust in the armed forces were Iran's shield against foreign attacks, and that this popular strength had the capacity to reject any economic or military pressure from the enemy.

Present at the meeting were Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Major General Ali Abdollahi, Army Chief of Staff Major General Amir Hatami and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Major General Ahmad Vahidi. The commanders briefed the Supreme Leader on security preparations along the borders. The navy is keeping a close watch in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and patrol units are ready. The Iranian military has tightened vigil in the Strait of Hormuz. Intelligence networks have been expanded along the north-western and south-eastern borders, and additional troops have been deployed to prevent infiltration or the threat of a military attack.

The commanders assured Khamenei that the production of ammunition, modern surveillance equipment and advanced combat weapons in the country has increased considerably. According to them, Iran's arms manufacturing is fully self-reliant, so the military will not lack anything even in a prolonged conflict.

At the end of his speech, Khamenei stressed the importance of unity in the "Axis of Resistance" in West Asia (the Middle East). He claimed that this Iran-led regional alliance would play a decisive role in shaping the region's new political and security order, and that it would keep working together to break the regional dominance of the US and Israel.