Iran: Eliminating Israel ‘no longer a dream but attainable goal’
Warning toward Jewish state comes amid increased bellicose rhetoric in recent weeks by Tehran
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that destroying arch-rival Israel was an “achievable goal”.
“This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer … a dream [but] it is an achievable goal,” Major General Hossein Salami said, quoted by the Guards’ Sepah news site.
Four decades on from Iran’s Islamic revolution, “we have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the impostor Zionist regime,” he said.
The new threat comes as Iran has increased its bellicose rhetoric towards the Jewish state over the past several weeks.
The United States, which withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018, has imposed a campaign of “maximum pressure” — with vocal support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Salami’s comments were given prominent coverage by the Tasnim and Fars news agencies, close to ultra-conservative political factions.
The official IRNA agency also carried his remarks, but placed more emphasis on his assertion that Iran was growing stronger and would finally beat its foes despite “hostility” towards it.
Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), warned over the weekend that “There will be nothing left of Israel” if a conflict breaks out between the two countries.
“If Israel attacks Iran, it will have to collect the scraps of Tel Aviv in the Mediterranean Sea,” Nilforoushan added while speaking to the Tasnim News Agency on Sunday.
Read more: i24 News