Israel Threatens Iranian Leaders, Reminds That Khamenei Fell Due to Its Attack

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has issued a fresh threat against Iranian leaders whom he accuses of seeking to destroy Israel. The threat was made as Tehran held funeral processions for their former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a statement on Monday, Katz reminded that it was Israel that had killed Khamenei. Katz, according to his spokesperson, stressed that any Iranian leader who “seeks to carry out plans to destroy Israel will be thwarted”. “Khamenei, whose funeral is currently underway, was eliminated by Israel because he initiated and led the plan to destroy Israel, both within Iran and across the region,” Katz said. He added that a combined Israeli and American attack on Iran had “removed the immediate existential threat facing Israel and severely crippled Iran’s strategic capabilities”. Katz’s statement was delivered as funeral ceremonies for Khamenei, which began on Friday, continued over several days. After lying in repose for two days at the Grand Mosalla complex in Tehran, Khamenei’s body was carried through the capital accompanied by large crowds of mourners. Khamenei and several members of his family were killed in an airstrike on his residence on 28 February, when Israel and the US bombarded targets inside Iran. Previously, the commander of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the joint operational command of the Iranian military, Ali Abdollahi, had warned Israel and the US against launching attacks during Khamenei’s funeral procession. He stressed that Tel Aviv and Washington would regret any disruption to the late supreme leader’s funeral. “We warn Iran’s enemies, particularly the US and the Zionist regime, to avoid miscalculation and to consider the severe retaliation our armed forces will carry out against any threat and aggression directed at our country,” Abdollahi asserted in a statement reported by Iranian state media last Thursday.