TEHRAN: Iran said it is “fully prepared to defend its sovereignty” if its arch-foe Israel attacks as it has threatened to do in response to a barrage of about 200 missiles.

The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, along with an Iranian general.

Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant vowed this week that his country’s response would be “deadly, precise and surprising”.

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In an address to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the Islamic republic “stands fully prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against any aggression targeting its vital interests and security”.

Iran, he said, was not seeking “war or escalation” but would exercise its “inherent right to self-defence fully in line with international law and will notify the Security Council of its legitimate response”.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said meanwhile in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday that “we do not want a war”, but “we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario”.

The warnings come against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Iran-allied Palestinian group Hamas that has been raging for more than a year and has expanded to include Lebanon in recent weeks.

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“Lebanon stands on the brink of a humanitarian collapse, and the international community must not allow this catastrophe to worsen,” Iran’s UN representative Iravani said.