Iran Threatens ‘Decisive Strike’ Against Israel Amid Rising Tensions Following Nuclear Talks With US
Iranian Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi. Photo: Screenshot
Iran has warned it will carry out a “decisive strike” against Israel if the country makes what Tehran calls “another mistake,” amid rising regional tensions following the fifth round of nuclear talks between the Islamist regime and the United States.
On Monday, Iranian Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander-in-chief of Iran’s army, threatened to attack Israel during a press conference, declaring that the Jewish state is too weak to withstand Iran’s military capabilities.
“The Zionist regime is too weak to harm the grandeur of Iran. Meanwhile, the power of the Islamic Republic can pose serious challenges to Israel and its backers,” the Iranian commander said.
“Even their own officials understand that they cannot endure such challenges. But since the current rulers are foolish child-killers, any misstep is possible,” he continued.
“If they are in a hurry to receive another ‘True Promise,’ we are fully prepared to deliver the appropriate blow,” Mousavi said, referring to the regime’s name for its ballistic-missile attack against Israel in October.
Meanwhile, in a post on X, Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned Tehran for praising last week’s antisemitic shooting of Israeli embassy staffers leaving a Jewish event in Washington, DC, and for openly calling for “terror attacks against Israel on US soil.”
“Kayhan, the mouthpiece of Supreme Leader Khamenei, praises the attack on Israeli embassy staff in Washington DC — one of whom was an American citizen — calling the killer the founder of the ‘Washington Basij,’ Iran’s brutal militia,” the statement read.
Kayhan is a Persian-language newspaper published in Iran widely considered to be a way of promoting the views of Iran’s so-called “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Iranian regime’s Basij militia forces have been key to cracking down on anti-government protests across the country with violence.
Iran’s latest threats came after the regime and the White House concluded their fifth round of nuclear talks in Rome on Friday, with the Omani mediator describing the negotiations as having made limited progress toward resolving the decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program.
So far, diplomatic efforts have stalled over Iran’s demand to maintain its domestic uranium enrichment program — a condition that Washington has firmly rejected.
Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has sought to curtail Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon that could spark a regional arms race and pose a threat to Israel.
Meanwhile, Iran seeks to have Western sanctions on its oil-dependent economy lifted, while maintaining its nuclear enrichment program — which the country insists is solely for civilian purposes.
As part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran — which aims to cut the country’s crude exports to zero and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon — Washington has been targeting Tehran’s oil industry with mounting sanctions.
For its part, Israel has declared it will never allow the Islamic regime to acquire nuclear weapons, as the country views Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat.
Ahead of Friday’s talks in Rome, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to uphold any agreement that prevents Iran from enriching uranium and obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“But in any case, Israel maintains the right to defend itself from a regime that is threatening to annihilate it,” Netanyahu said in a press conference, following reports that Jerusalem could strike Iranian nuclear sites if ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.
Last April, Iran launched around 300 missiles and drones at Israel in a failed assault dubbed “Operation True Promise,” with nearly all of them intercepted by the Jewish state and its allies.
The attack was retaliation for an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus that killed seven members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) — a state military force and internationally designated terrorist organization.
At the time, Iranian officials said the operation showcased “Iran’s ability to strike Israeli military and intelligence targets with surgical accuracy,” adding that they had only deployed a fraction of their firepower.
Iran’s second direct attack on Israel in October came after Israeli forces killed several top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, both terrorist proxies of the Iranian regime, including the assassination of Hamas’s political chief in Tehran. The only fatality was a Palestinian man from Gaza who was in the West Bank village of Nu’eima, near Jericho.
Israel responded to Iran’s second attack with a sophisticated three-wave strike that targeted Iranian missile production sites and air defenses, leaving Tehran vulnerable and crippling its key defensive capabilities.
According to Israeli defense sources, the operation also significantly hindered Iran’s missile systems and production capacity, reducing its ability to launch large-scale attacks.
