Israel and the United States are “supporters of state terrorism” and will suffer a “punitive response” at an “opportune time,” Iran’s Press TV cited a top Iranian general as saying Sunday, days after an Iranian nuclear scientist was killed.

Iran will hold “the U.S., Britain and the Zionist regime accountable for their actions,” said the deputy chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri…

Those responsible will not own up, Khamenei said, but the attack “has been carried out by the planning or support of CIA and Mossad [spy] services, like all other crimes of the network of international state terrorism.”

Khamenei ended his message of condolence with a warning: “We shall persist in punishing the perpetrators of this crime, as well those supporting them behind the scenes.”