“The enemies, whether it is the Zionist regime or the United States, will definitely receive an overwhelming response to what they have done to Iran, the Iranian nation and the resistance front,” Khamenei said in the video published by Iranian state media.

The religious leader did not provide detailed information about the timing and scope of the threatened attack. The U.S. military operates from bases in the Middle East, and some troops currently operate a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.

While the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is likely to be in the Arabian Sea, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that more destroyers, fighter squadrons, tankers and B-52 long-range bombers will arrive in the region to deter Iran. and its militant allies.

Khamenei, 85, had adopted a more cautious approach in his previous statements, saying officials would evaluate Iran’s reaction and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated or underestimated.” Iran launched two major direct attacks on Israel in April and October.

But Iran’s efforts to downplay the Israeli attack were thwarted when satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed damage to military bases near Tehran linked to the country’s ballistic missile program, as well as a Revolutionary Guard base used for satellite launches.

Iran’s allies, whom Tehran calls the “Axis of Resistance,” have also suffered severely from ongoing attacks by Israel, particularly Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran has long used these groups both as an asymmetric way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct attack. Some analysts believe these groups want Iran to do more to provide them with military support.

But Iran is dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and has faced widespread, numerous protests for years. After Khamenei’s speech, the Iranian rial fell to 691,500 against the dollar, near an all-time low. When Tehran reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, the figure was 32,000 rials per dollar.

General Muhammad Ali Naini, spokesman for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semi-official Fars news agency just before Khamenei’s statements were published. In the document, he warned that Iran’s response “will be intelligent, strong and beyond the enemy’s understanding.”

“The leaders of the Zionist regime must look out their bedroom windows and protect the criminal pilots in their own little territory,” he warned. Israeli air force pilots appear to have used air-launched ballistic missiles in the October 26 attack.

On Saturday, Khamenei met with university students to mark Student’s Day, which commemorates the November 4, 1978 incident when Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the Shah’s rule at Tehran University. The conflict led to the deaths and injuries of many students and further escalated the tensions gripping Iran at the time, ultimately leading to the Shah’s flight from the country and the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The crowd welcomed Khamenei noisily, chanting: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!” Some threatened that American soldiers arriving in the Middle East standing up would “turn around in coffins” horizontally, making a hand gesture similar to the “break” sign made by slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a 2020 speech.

This Sunday, Iran will mark the 45th anniversary of the US Embassy hostage crisis according to the Iranian calendar. The raid of the embassy by Islamist students on November 4, 1979 sparked a 444-day crisis that reinforced the decades-long hostility between Tehran and Washington that continues today.