Tehran 'Will Strike the Israeli Regime' in Retaliation for Attack on Iran –Seyed Mohammad Marandi

Iranian officials are signaling that Tehran is preparing its retaliation for Israel's attack on Iranian military sites last week, with the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry noting that they will "use all available tools" to respond, and the head of the IRGC vowing, "We will give an unimaginable response to the enemy."

Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, of the University of Tehran, noted that while Israel's attack on Iran inflicted limited damage, he believes "it’s been decided that Iran will strike the Israeli regime," because for the Iranians, "what is more important was that this was an act of aggression, and therefore the country has to respond, because if it does not respond, then that will only encourage the Israeli regime to carry out further threats."

While the Pentagon claimed Israel's attack "should be the end of this tit-for-tat" with Iran, Prof. Marandi argued that this is an indicator that Washington does not see Israel's attack as "successful," and that if Israel had been able to seriously harm Iran then, "I don’t think the Americans would want this exchange to end."