Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami has claimed that Israel is in greater danger than ever before, and stated that forces in Syria are awaiting orders to destroy Israel.
Salami said in a recent speech that the “Islamic army in Syria” in the Golan Heights was awaiting orders to eradicate the “evil regime” of Israel.
He also claimed that the Tehran-backed Hezbollah terror group had 100,000 missiles aimed at Israel, while stressing that the “life of Zionist regime was never in danger as it is now”.
In the speech, Salami praised Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Iranian revolution, for making the destruction of Israel a goal of the regime. The general said that Khomeini “spread the rationale of eradicating Israel as a new notion in the world’s political discourse…Since then, the Zionist regime is fearful, delusional, and worried”.
Holding Israel responsible for all the Middle East’s troubles, Salami said: “All the problems of the Islamic world stem from the existence of the false, counterfeit, historically rootless, and identity-less regime named Israel”.
The Iranian regime has a long and frequent history of issuing violent remarks targeting Israel.
Only a month ago Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei labelled Israel as a “malignant cancerous tumour” to be “removed and eradicated”. The Supreme Leader posted on twitter to convey his views as he wrote “Our stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. Israel is a malignant cancerous tumour in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen”.
During an address last year to the Iranian regime’s sixth international conference in support of a Palestinian violent uprising against Israel, he declared that the Jewish State was a “cancerous tumour” and backed “holy Jihad” against it as a necessity.
In 2014, Ayatollah Khamenei posted a nine-point plan of “key questions about the elimination of Israel” on his Twitter account.
On Sunday, Syrian air defences were activated near the T-4 air base, in response to an airstrike on the facility. The Israeli military was held responsible by the Syrian state media, however, this is unconfirmed by the Israeli military.
