Tehran on March 20 said that recreational areas and tourist destinations around the world will not be safe for Iran’s enemies.
Iran’s top military spokesman, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, made the threat as the regime continues to be bombarded by U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.
“From now on, based on the information we have about you, even parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations anywhere in the world will no longer be safe for you,” Shekarchi said in a statement published online by Iranian state television.
Before he was killed, Naini said that Tehran was still building missiles, an apparent attempt to counter remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that Iran’s ability to produce ballistic missiles had been taken out.
“We are producing missiles even during war conditions, which is amazing, and there is no particular problem in stockpiling,” Naini said in a report quoted by Iran’s state-run IRAN newspaper.
Mojtaba Khamenei
Iran’s previous leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the first senior regime figure to have been killed in the Iran War, after being targeted on Feb. 28 during the opening salvo of the joint U.S.–Israeli attack.He was recently succeeded by his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who on March 20 called for the enemies of Iran to have their “security” taken away.
The remarks came in a statement issued on his behalf to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, following the killing of Khatib.
Khamenei has not been seen publicly since he was appointed to replace his father, with U.S. and Israeli officials suspecting that he is injured.
A senior Israeli security official told Epoch Magazine that Israel had indications Khamenei suffered a leg injury during strikes targeting the bunker of his father.
Iran Being Decimated
Both the United States and Israel have said that Iran’s military capabilities have been severely disrupted since the start of the war.In a statement to the foreign press on March 19, Netanyahu said that “Iran is being decimated” and the United States and Israel are winning the war.
“Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed,” he said, per a transcript from the prime minister’s office. “Hundreds of their launchers have been destroyed, their stockpiles of missiles are being hit hard.”
During a Pentagon press briefing on March 19, Hegseth said that to date, the U.S. military has struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure.
“We’re hunting and striking death and destruction from above,” Hegseth said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
“Iran’s air defenses, flattened. Iran’s defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs, being overwhelmingly destroyed. We’ve hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.”
The secretary of war said that the ability of the Iranian regime to manufacture new ballistic missiles “has probably taken the hardest hit of all.” He added that ballistic missile attacks and kamikazi drone attacks against U.S. forces was down 90 percent since the start of war.