Maj. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, expressed doubt on Sunday that Israel will uphold the ceasefire that was reached last week after 12 days of an Israeli-initiated war.
Mousavi, who replaced former Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri after he was killed by an Israeli airstrike on June 13, made the comments in a phone call with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman.
“We did not initiate the war, but we responded to the aggressor with all our might, and since we have real doubts about the enemy’s adherence to its commitments, including the ceasefire, we are prepared to give it a strong response if it repeats the aggression,” Mousavi said, according to Iran’s PressTV.
Mousavi’s comments come after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened that Israel could strike Iran despite the ceasefire. Katz said he instructed the IDF to come up with an “enforcement plan” aimed at “maintaining Israel’s air superiority, preventing nuclear advancement and missile production, and responses to Iran for supporting terrorist activities” against Israel.
“We will act consistently to thwart threats of this kind,” Katz wrote on X. “I suggest to the toothless snake’s head in Tehran to understand and beware: Operation ‘Rising Lion’ was just the preview of a new Israeli policy – after October 7, immunity is over.”
In an interview, Katz suggested that Israel could follow a model similar to Lebanon, where Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Hezbollah in November 2024 but has committed thousands of truce violations and is now bombing the country on a near-daily basis. However, Israel’s war on Lebanon depleted Hezbollah’s capabilities, and Hezbollah hasn’t been firing back, while Iran has shown it has the ability to strike back hard and did so until the final moments of the war.
President Trump has also threatened to bomb Iran again if the country resumes its civilian nuclear enrichment program. Trump insists his airstrike “obliterated” the nuclear facilities and that Tehran can’t quickly rebuild, but the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) believes Iranian enrichment could restart within a few months.
