Disturbing talk from Tehran: "The Zionist regime [Israel] will soon receive a strong and definite response, and there is no doubt about it," said Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief commander of Iran's army, on Wednesday. "It is clear that they themselves have realized the speed of their own destruction, and by doing so, they want to save themselves from the quagmire, but they definitely cannot save themselves from annihilation."
Iranian officials said similar things back in April, before Israel and Iran exchanged strikes which did little damage and seemed more symbolic than designed to spiral into war. But right now the entire region—specifically, Iran and its proxies—appears to be on the brink of retaliation directed toward Israel, which took out Fuad Shukr, one of Hezbollah's top military commanders, and Ismail Haniyeh, one of Hamas' top political leaders. Israel claims it assassinated Shukr in retaliation for a rocket attack from Hezbollah that killed 12 kids. (The killing of Haniyeh probably needs no explanation, given the events of October 7, in which Hamas came into Israel and murdered 1,200 in the single most brutal day of carnage Israel has ever seen.)
