Adviser to Khamenei says bases used in US strikes on Iran are ‘legitimate targets’

Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gives an interview to The Associated Press at his office in Tehran, Iran, August 18, 2013. (AP/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

By AFP

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader says that bases used by US forces to launch attacks on Iranian nuclear sites “will be considered legitimate targets.”

“Any country in the region or elsewhere that is used by American forces to strike Iran will be considered a legitimate target for our armed forces,” says Ali Akbar Velayati in a message carried by the official IRNA news agency.

Velayati adds that the United States “no longer” has a place in the Middle East after its overnight strikes.

“There is no longer any place for America or its bases in this region and the Islamic world,” says Velayati.

“America has attacked the heart of the Islamic world and must await irreparable consequences, because the Islamic Republic does not tolerate any insult or aggression against itself,” he adds.