Is Iran set for a strong retaliation against Israel? Military’s cryptic tweets spark debate

Days after Israel carried out “precise” and “targeted” air strikes at multiple locations in Iran, pushing the Middle East further close to the brink of a regional war, two cryptic tweets from the Iran military on Wednesday have sparked concerns about an imminent retaliation.

“It’s almost time,” one of the posts says, along with eerie visuals of a clock ticking and a missile ready to launch. “The time of punishment is near” reads a text in the visual, in both English and Persian.

An hour later, the military shared another post in which it says “God’s retribution is near!”.

"Yahweh will bring a nation against you [Jewish wrongdoers] from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down. Torah (Deuteronomy 28:49),” it says.

Even though Tehran has not made any statement on its plans for an immediate retaliation, the two posts on X are widely seen as an indication of the military’s preparation for a strike.

The internet is divided and the factions supporting both Tehran and Tel Aviv have flocked to the comments section to make war cries.

“Always behind you Iran. Hope you will be the first country who gives tough time to Israel,” writes one user, while another user accuses Iran of using proxies against other countries. “Stop your proxies. Stop your wars. You keep messing around, you’re going to find out,” he writes.

In a pre-dawn operation on October 26, Israel attacked military targets of Iran with a series of airstrikes in what Tel Aviv claimed a retaliation for the barrage of ballistic missiles the Islamic Republic fired upon Israel earlier in the month.

Iran government claimed that Israeli strikes had caused only “limited damage”, but its army admitted that four soldiers lost their lives in the attacks.

Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it had a right to self-defence, and "considers itself entitled and obligated to defend against foreign acts of aggression."