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North Korea, Russia Reaffirm Commitment to Partnership Accord

A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry press service shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (L) during an unveiling ceremony of the plaque to mark Kim Il Sung visit to USSR in 1949, at Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, Russia, 01 November 2024. EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry press service shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (L) during an unveiling ceremony of the plaque to mark Kim Il Sung visit to USSR in 1949, at Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, Russia, 01 November 2024. EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE HANDOUT
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North Korea, Russia Reaffirm Commitment to Partnership Accord

A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry press service shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (L) during an unveiling ceremony of the plaque to mark Kim Il Sung visit to USSR in 1949, at Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, Russia, 01 November 2024. EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the Russian Foreign Ministry press service shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (R) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (L) during an unveiling ceremony of the plaque to mark Kim Il Sung visit to USSR in 1949, at Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, Russia, 01 November 2024. EPA/RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE HANDOUT

The foreign ministers of North Korea and Russia reaffirmed their commitment to implement provisions agreed in June between the leaders of the two nations, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday.
North Korea Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui and her Russian counterpart Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov met in Moscow, amid rising concerns about Pyongyang's involvement in Moscow's war in Ukraine, Reuters said.
NATO has joined the governments of South Korea, the US and Ukraine in confirming Pyongyang's dispatch of troops to Russia, saying that North Korean military units had been deployed to Russia's Kursk region on the border with Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June agreed that the two countries would provide military and other assistance if either were attacked, as part of a strategic partnership accord.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Threatens Israel and US with ‘Crushing Response’ over Israeli Attack

In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Threatens Israel and US with ‘Crushing Response’ over Israeli Attack

In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
In this photo released by an official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during a meeting with school and university students, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Iran's supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its allies.

Ali Khamenei spoke as Iranian officials are increasingly threatening to launch yet another strike against Israel after its Oct. 26 attack on the country that targeted military bases and other locations and killed at least five people.

Any further attacks from either side could engulf the wider Middle East, already teetering over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon, into a wider regional conflict just ahead of the US presidential election this Tuesday.

“The enemies, whether the Zionist regime or the United States of America, will definitely receive a crushing response to what they are doing to Iran and the Iranian nation and to the resistance front," Khamenei said in video released by Iranian state media.

The supreme leader did not elaborate on the timing of the threatened attack, nor the scope. The US military operates throughout the Middle East, with some troops now manning a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery in Israel.

The 85-year-old Khamenei had struck a more cautious approach in earlier remarks, saying officials would weigh Iran’s response and that Israel’s attack “should not be exaggerated nor downplayed.”

But efforts by Iran to downplay the attack faltered as satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed attacks damaged military bases near Tehran linked to the country's ballistic missile program, as well as damage at a Revolutionary Guard base used in satellite launches.

Iran's allies, called the “Axis of Resistance” by Tehran, also have been severely hurt by ongoing Israeli attacks, particularly Lebanon's Hezbollah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Iran long has used those groups as both an asymmetrical way to attack Israel and as a shield against a direct assault. Some analysts believe those groups want Iran to do more to back them militarily.

Iran, however, has been dealing with its own problems at home, as its economy struggles under the weight of international sanctions and it has faced years of widespread, multiple protests.

Gen. Mohammad Ali Naini, a spokesman for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard which controls the ballistic missiles needed to target Israel, gave an interview published by the semiofficial Fars news agency just before Khamenei's remarks were released. In it, he warned Iran's response "will be wise, powerful and beyond the enemy’s comprehension.”

“The leaders of the Zionist regime should look out from the windows of their bedrooms and protect their criminal pilots within their small territory,” he warned.

Khamenei on Saturday met with university students to mark Students Day, which commemorates a Nov. 4, 1978, incident in which Iranian soldiers opened fire on students protesting the rule of the shah at Tehran University. The shooting killed and wounded several students and further escalated the tensions consuming Iran at the time that eventually led to the shah fleeing the country and the 1979 revolution.

The crowd offered a raucous welcome to Khamenei, chanting: “The blood in our veins is a gift to our leader!” Some also made a hand gesture — similar to a “timeout” signal — given by the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in 2020 in a speech in which he threatened that American troops who arrived in the Mideast standing up would “return in coffins” horizontally.