TEHRAN -- Iran’s top military general said Wednesday the country exercised self-restraint but it ran out of patience following its assassination of Hezbollah’s secretary general and a top Iranian commander.
The Zionist regime assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh here where he was to attend the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian on July 31.
“After Martyr Haniyeh’s assassination, Iran went through a tough period of self-restraint amid repeated requests by the Americans and Europeans, who asked us to exercise self-restraint so they would establish a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Muhammad Bagheri said. 
“However, after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s and General Abbas Nilforoushan’s martyrdom, the situation was no longer tolerable,” he added.
The Hezbollah leader and the Iranian commander were assassinated during intense Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburb of Beirut on Friday.
On Tuesday, Iran responded to the triple assassinations as well as the regime’s ongoing deadly aggression against Gaza and Lebanon by hitting Israeli military and intelligence bases.
According to Bagheri, the targets of the “heroic” operation that “served as a response to many of the Zionists’ crimes,” included three of the Israeli regime’s main airbases.
He named the bases as Mossad headquarters, which he described as the “center for terrorism,” the Nevatim airbase that houses its F-35 warplanes, and the Hatzerim base that was used to assassinate Nasrallah.
Bagheri asserted that Iran’s armed forces are completely ready to respond to any further atrocities with “many times more than” what was displayed during True Promise II.
“If the Zionist regime, which has reached madness, is not controlled by the United States and Europe, and seeks to either continue its atrocities or take action against our territorial integrity and sovereignty, the operation will be repeated with multiple magnitude and all of their infrastructures will be struck.”
He hoped the U.S. will reverse its approach and stop the Zionist regime so the region could move towards calm.
The General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, in a statement, said Operation True Promise II came in reaction to the Zionist regime’s disregard for the legitimate sovereign rights of the Islamic Republic, showing how the country is capable of “making any malicious aggressor, at any level, regret their actions”.
It warned the regime that “it should expect a widespread and total destruction of its infrastructure within the occupied Palestinian lands if it responds” to Iran’s operation. 
It also warned Israel’s supporters, including the United States, against taking part in direct intervention against the Islamic Republic, saying such interference would warrant “a powerful response against their centers and interests across the region which will make them regretful”. 
The chief commander of the Iranian Army also warned the Zionist regime of “definite destruction” if it carries out an aggression against the Islamic Republic.
“If the enemies make the slightest mistake, we may decide to destroy their infrastructures too,” Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said during a televised interview.
Mousavi praised the Iranian response for penetrating the regime’s “strongest defense layers,” saying it is a message to the Zionist regime.
“We have always declared that we do not initiate any wars, but would definitely defend our rights powerfully,” he noted.