Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, met his country's three highest-ranking military commanders on Saturday and ordered that any renewed attack by the United States or Israel be met with an "immediate and effective response, without geographical limitations," according to the statement released after the meeting.
The meeting was held behind closed doors, and the orders were published in the statement afterwards. Sitting with Khamenei were the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Gen. Abdollahi, the Army commander, Maj. Gen. Hatami, and the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. Gen. Vahidi. The stated purpose of the order, in the statement's own words, is "maximum deterrence."
Khamenei also ordered the military's target bank updated so that all of the enemy's material and non-material assets — American and Israeli — fall within the reach of Iran's armed forces. And he set down who would end any new war: if the enemies launch military or terrorist attacks again, he said, it will be Iran's armed forces and the Iranian nation that "determine when and under what conditions those hostilities will end."
The commanders briefed him on readiness along the Gulf coast, around the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, and on Iran's northwestern and southeastern borders. They reported a several-fold increase in the production of ammunition and combat weapons, and Khamenei praised what he called the "intelligent steadfastness" of Iran's allied forces across the region.
The order lands days after Republican strategist Karl Rove said he expects President Donald Trump to resume strikes on Iran after Tuesday's midterm elections. The Pentagon already has two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region, and a third is on its way. Washington had not publicly responded to the statement as this article was published.
For Americans, the order is not abstract. The target set Tehran says is now within reach is made up of U.S. bases, ships and service members across the region, and a response promised "without geographical limitations" is a warning that any new clash would not stay where it starts — with the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large share of the world's oil moves, sitting in the middle of the map the commanders briefed on.
Tehran is speaking as if its threats cost nothing and as if American patience has no end. It does. Resilience has a limit — and drawing up a longer target list is not the same thing as being able to withstand what comes after it is used.
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