Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, with a rifle by his side, said Tuesday's missile attack on Israel was "completely legitimate" in a speech to thousands of people in Tehran.
"The operation carried out by our armed forces a few days ago was completely legitimate," Ayatollah Khamenei said during a sermon at a large mosque during Friday prayers, as quoted by the French news agency AFP.
Khamenei also described as legitimate the attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the ongoing conflict in the region.
Iran's supreme leader said the fight by the Tehran-backed Lebanese party Hezbollah provides a "vital service to the entire region."
Khamenei said Israel "cannot seriously harm" Hezbollah and Hamas, and that Iran's allies "will not back down."
"The resistance in the region will not retreat despite its martyrs and will achieve victory," he declared during a rare sermon in Tehran, delivered mainly in Arabic, according to AFP.
Israel "does not have much longer" to live, he said.
According to Khamenei, Iran's attack on Israel on Tuesday is the least of its responses.
"What our military forces did was the least of all punishments for the aggression of the Israeli regime," he said, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
In response to the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon on Friday, Iran launched around 200 missiles at Israel four days later.
Israel admitted that some of the projectiles hit military installations, but without causing serious damage or casualties.
In addition to Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders, the Iranian general responsible for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' operations abroad was also killed in the attack.
Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was also killed in a July attack in Tehran.
Khamenei said that Iran would not delay or rush in fulfilling its duties and would strike again "in the future if necessary."
"Every nation has the right to defend its country and territory against the aggressor," he said, adding that "every blow against the Zionist regime is a service to all humanity."
According to Khamenei, "Hezbollah and its heroic and martyred leader [Nasrallah] are the essence of Lebanon's historical virtues and identity."
Iran's supreme leader also called on the Muslim world to unite against Israel, "whose policy is divide and rule."
"The policy of the Koran is that Muslim nations should be united," he said.
He said that "the enemy of Iran is the enemy of Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Yemen." Khamenei also blamed the United States for the tensions in the Middle East.
"The United States seeks to control the resources of the region through the Israeli regime," he said.
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