Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hailed the country's armed forces for their "success" in his first public remarks since Tehran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel last week.
Meeting with senior Iranian military commanders Sunday, Khamenei praised the armed forces for their "success in recent events." He was referring to Iran’s air attack against Israel on April 13.
"The armed forces showed a good image of their abilities and power and an admirable image of the Iranian nation," Khamenei said. "They also proved the emergence of the power of the Iranian nation's determination at the international level," he added.
Israel said it intercepted 99 percent of the more than 300 drones and missiles fired at it by Tehran with the aid of the United States and other allies and that those which got through caused only minor damage.
Satellite images analyzed Saturday by The Associated Press verified Israel’s information.
Khamenei downplayed Iran’s thwarted airstrikes by Israel and its allies, saying, "The issue of the number of missiles fired or the missiles that hit the target" was "secondary.”
"The main issue is the emergence of the willpower of the Iranian nation and the armed forces in the international arena," he said, according to his official website.
Iran’s foreign minister minimized a retaliatory strike by Israel on Iran Friday, describing the weapons that Israel used as more like children’s toys.
“What happened last night was not a strike,” the foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, told NCB News when he was attending a U.N. Security Council session.
“They were more like toys that our children play with — not drones,” he said.
The foreign minister said Iran was not planning to respond unless Israel launches a significant attack.
His comments helped to calm fears of a looming escalation in the hostilities between the two countries that could lead to an all-out war in the wider region.
Israel’s Friday strike, which Khamenei also minimized, was a retaliatory strike to Iran's unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, which was itself in retaliation for an airstrike on the Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria on April 1.
That attack, widely blamed on Israel, levelled the Iranian consulate and killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, including two generals.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
