Iran’s response to the assassination of a Hamas leader will be “definite, calculated and accurate”, its foreign minister said as he taunted Israel for losing its “deterrence power”.
Tehran’s renewed threat came after Hezbollah claimed to have fired over 300 rockets at northern Israel on Sunday. Israel in return said it set 100 fighter jets to attack thousands of rockets in Lebanon in a preemptive strike.
Nasser Kanaani, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, said that despite the “comprehensive support of states like the United States, Israel could not predict the time and place of a limited and managed response by the resistance”.
Mr Kanaani said Israel now has to defend itself inside its territory, showing how the “strategic balances have undergone fundamental changes” in the region. Israel had lost its “deterrence power”, he added.
Abbas Araghchi, the foreign minister, also threatened Israel saying his country’s response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month is “definitive, and will be measured and well calculated”.
“We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it — unlike Israel,” Mr Araghchi said.