Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, The New York Times reported citing three Iranian officials.
Khamenei, gave the order at an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning.
Khamenei instructed military commanders from the Revolutionary Guards and the army to prepare plans for both an attack and a defense in the event that the war expands and Israel or the U.S. strike Iran, the officials said.
Statements from other Iranian officials, including the new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the foreign ministry, the IRGC and Iran’s mission to the U.N., also said openly that Iran would retaliate against Israel and that it had a right to defend itself against a transgression on its sovereignty.
