Iran on Friday issued its own counterthreats in the wake of several reports saying Israel is readying a major response to the Oct.1st Iranian ballistic missile attack. The Biden administration is said to be in consultations with Israel’s security cabinet on the potential of taking out the Islamic Republic’s oil and gas sites and vital infrastructure. Nuclear sites could be on the table, but President Biden is objecting to this, at least on a public level.

“The resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared while leading Friday prayers in Tehran. “The brilliant action of our armed forces a couple of nights ago was completely legal and legitimate,” he said defiantly in the rare appearance.

Khamenei gave a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran while holding a gun pic.twitter.com/wO8j9hrRl5

— Christian Henderson (@CjvHenderson) October 4, 2024

Iran will not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in confronting Israel, he said. While not directly threatening Israel or the US, he was described at that moment as grasping the barrel of a rifle with his left hand.

But a much more specific threat came from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi, who was quoted in state media as saying that any Israeli attack would be met with strikes on Israel’s own energy installations.

“If the occupiers make such a mistake, we will target all their energy sources, installations and all refineries and gas fields,” the IRGC’s Fadavi said.

After a night of the biggest airstrikes on Beirut thus far, and as the total death toll since aerial attacks began has reached 2,000 – Iran has further vowed support to its “friends” in Lebanon. 

In a surprising and risky move, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi actually flew into Beirut, even with the bombs falling in the area. This despite IRGC officers having recently been targeted in the stepped-up Israeli airstrikes on the Lebanese capital.

“Be sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran is and will be firmly standing by the friends in Lebanon,” Araghchi told a press gathering in the Lebanese capital.

He emphasized of the trip that “it was necessary to say this in person” – even as Israel continues to target top Hezbollah leadership. Israel has been using heavy “bunker buster” bombs to reach underground meeting places beneath buildings.

Last night’s Israeli airstrikes focused on Dahieh neighborhood of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold but which is also packed with civilians, were described as the biggest to date…

Israel’s defense chief Yoav Gallant characterized the ongoing air attacks as necessary to degrade and destroy Hezbollah’s command structure: “Hezbollah is receiving very severe blows, one after the other. We eliminated [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah and we have more surprises in store, some of which have already been carried out and some of which will be carried out,” he said.

He issued the words while visiting troops positioned along the northern border, and further warned that the ground offensive will continue “until the removal of combat means” and that “we have more surprises in our arsenal.”

Thursday into Friday airstrikes have reportedly damaged and closed the main artery from Lebanon to Syria, at a moment Lebanon’s refugee crisis grows more acute, and after tens of thousands had already fled back into Syria.