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Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called Sunday for a global “military coalition” as other top officials vowed that Israel will pay a price for its weekend airstrikes against key Iranian military sites.
The long-simmering Israel-Iran military tensions have reached a pivotal moment after spilling into direct conflict several times this month and threatening to drag the Middle East into a broader, more deadly conflict.
The supreme leader’s strong rhetoric reflects Iran’s strengthening alliances with China, Russia and North Korea, all leading U.S. adversaries. It suggests those autocratic allies could ultimately stand with Iran against Israel.
The “Axis of Authoritarians,” as some analysts call it, is bolstered by Iran’s military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and the arrival of North Korean troops in Russia. The troops are expected to be deployed to the front lines to battle Ukrainian forces.
Iran’s supreme leader did not offer any details about his coalition or call on any specific country to take direct military action against Israel.
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“A global coalition must be formed, as well as a political coalition, an economic coalition and, if necessary, a military coalition, against the malicious Zionist regime that is committing the most brutal war crimes today,” the ayatollah said, according to Iranian state-controlled media, presumably referring to Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said the “perpetrators” of the airstrikes Friday night “will receive an appropriate response.”
U.S. negotiators reportedly returned to Qatar on Sunday to launch another round of negotiations to secure a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the region last week to push for a truce.
The Biden administration has threatened to begin withholding some military aid to Israel if it does not improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Israel blames the humanitarian suffering in the Palestinian enclave on Hamas.
Iran’s next move
The world is anticipating an Iranian response to the Israeli airstrikes. A significant assault could trigger more violence across the Middle East because Israel almost surely would respond with fresh attacks.
Ayatollah Khamenei said Israel’s strikes shouldn’t be “magnified,” suggesting that Iran may decide against a direct military response and de-escalate tensions in the region.
The Israel Defense Forces said the airstrikes were necessary to defend against relentless attacks by Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the Iranian military that started after Hamas, another Iran-backed group, massacred some 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel’s direct strike on Iran had been expected since Iran fired a barrage of nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. Tehran said that attack was retaliation for IDF killings of senior Hezbollah and Hamas officials. Israel recently killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah, Hamas militant leader Yahya Sinwar and other leaders of Iran’s proxy network, known as the “axis of resistance.”
Israel also has killed key figures in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that satellite photos showed the Israeli airstrikes targeted Iran’s Parchin military base southeast of Tehran, where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects Iran in the past conducted tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear weapon. The Israeli bombing is also thought to have targeted the nearby Khojir military base, which some analysts suspect hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites.
Specialists say the strikes caused significant material damage to the Iranian military and its missile production capacity and were exceedingly more successful than Iran’s direct attacks on Israel in April and on Oct. 1. U.S. and Israeli air defenses repelled both of those attacks.
“The strikes sent a clear message that Israel is prepared to deliver a disproportionate amount of damage to high-value targets,” Mark Dubowitz, chief executive at the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in an analysis over the weekend.
“This potency contrasts with the ineffectiveness of Iran’s large-scale missile and drone assaults on April 13-14 and Oct. 1 that caused minimal damage to the Jewish state,” he wrote.
Israel did not appear to target any of Iran’s nuclear facilities or its oil production infrastructure, satisfying pleas from the Biden administration to avoid hitting nonmilitary targets.
Although Israel has been tight-lipped about the details of its attacks on Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the mission achieved its goals.
“We promised we would respond to the Iranian attack, and on Saturday, we struck. … The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, achieving all of its objectives,” Mr. Netanyahu said, according to Israeli media.
Some observers expected much more aggressive military strikes on Iran. The relatively restrained operation even brought some rare criticism inside Israel that Mr. Netanyahu had not been tough enough in his response.
Knesset opposition leader Yair Lapid said avoiding “strategic and economic targets” was a mistake.
“We could and should have exacted a much heavier price from Iran,” Mr. Lapid posted on X.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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