Ali Khamenei In Secure Location After Iran Fires Hundreds of Missiles At Israel

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei remains in a secure location after Tehran fired missiles at Israel, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Tuesday.

He was moved to a secure location after Israel assassinated Iran’s close ally Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said they launched tens of missiles toward Israel and warned that if Israel retaliated Tehran’s response would be “more crushing and destructive”, Iranian state TV reported.

“After a period of restraint, Iran has targeted the heart of the occupied territories with tens of missiles following the martyrdom of (Hamas leader) Ismail Haniyeh … the intensification of the Zionist regime’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, the martyrdom of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and (of) Guards Commander Abbas Nilforoushan.”

A senior Iranian official told Reuters the missile launches were ordered by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has remained in a secure location since Israeli airstrikes on Beirut killed Nasrallah last week.

Tehran is “fully prepared” for an Israeli retaliation, the official added.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country to be respected, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

“An all-out war must be avoided in Lebanon at all costs,” Dujarric said in a statement, adding that Guterres spoke with Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati earlier on Tuesday, telling him the U.N. was ready to help those in need.

“The Secretary-General will continue his contacts, and his representatives on the ground will also continue their efforts to de-escalate the situation,” Dujarric said.

He later told reporters at a briefing that U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, had seen sporadic incursions by the Israeli military.

“The information they have and they’ve received … is that they’ve seen sporadic incursions by the IDF,” Dujarric said. “They have not witnessed a full-scale invasion.”