Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has pledged that his country will retaliate for a series of Israeli strikes that killed senior Iranian commanders and scientists, escalating tensions between the two long-standing adversaries.
In a national address on Friday morning, Khamenei confirmed the deaths and warned Israel of impending retribution.
“Israel should expect severe punishment,”
he declared, accusing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of targeting civilian areas during the operation.
Israel has attacked Iran
– I was on the show of Judge Napolitano yesterday expressing doubt that Israel would be crazy enough to actually go ahead with the attack on Iran. It turns out that they are this mad pic.twitter.com/YfVwjnqqV1— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) June 13, 2025
The IDF reported that it had launched extensive strikes across Iranian territory, hitting military sites as well as a key nuclear facility located in Natanz. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the objective of the mission was to obstruct Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
“Our goal is to prevent Iran from acquiring the capability to develop nuclear weapons,”
Netanyahu said in an official statement.
Iran’s top military authority, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, denounced the strikes as a blatant act of aggression.
“Blatant aggression,”
it said, promising a
“crushing”
response to what it described as an unprovoked assault.
Iranian state media identified several of those killed in the strikes. Among them were Hossein Salami, commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC); Deputy Chief of Army Staff Gholam Ali Rashid; and two prominent nuclear scientists, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi and Fereydoon Abbasi. The loss of these key figures is likely to deepen the sense of crisis within Iran’s leadership.
🚨 ISRAEL IS ATTACKING IRAN!
ISRAEL IS A TERRORIST STATE!pic.twitter.com/zwsVaDMiwB
— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) June 13, 2025
The timing of the Israeli offensive has added a new layer of complexity to ongoing diplomatic efforts. The sixth round of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran is scheduled to take place in Oman on Sunday. The negotiations aim to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, which placed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
However, progress has been sluggish. US President Donald Trump, who had withdrawn the United States from the accord in 2018, recently accused Tehran of deliberately slowing the pace of negotiations.
“Slow-walking”
the talks, he claimed, was a tactic by Iran to gain leverage.
Amid the growing tensions, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasised that Washington had no involvement in the Israeli military action.
“The United States was not involved in the Israeli strikes,”
Rubio said on Friday, attempting to distance American policy from the unfolding confrontation.
