A senior cleric in Iran has once again threatened Tel Aviv with destruction, while on Thursday, October 11, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Chief Commander has also claimed that "Israel is near its end".
"Iran is going to stand side by side the Lebanese Hezbollah until Israel is totally annihilated", IRGC Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said, adding, "If Iran is threatened outside its borders, Tehran would not hesitate to retaliate extraterritorially."
Tehran’s temporary Friday Prayer Leader, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami also warned on Thursday, "Washington should know that If it makes a wrong move and pushes Israel and Saudi Arabia towards a war with Iran, Tel Aviv will be levelled to the ground."
Khatami, who was speaking in Bojnourd, northeastern Iran, maintained, "Our long range missiles are supporting our resistance and, what has made our fists powerful, are these missiles." Khatami is a hardliner, often repeating what the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei says.
Echoing the cleric's comments, Maj. Gen. Jafari vowed that IRGC is standing firm and resolved until the "total annihilation of the Zionist regime, the origin of corruption and destruction".
The Islamic Republic does not recognize Israel and has repeatedly called for its destruction.
According to IRGC-run Tasnim news agency, in a letter to the secretary general of Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nassrallah, the commander of the Iranian elite force reaffirmed support for the battle against the “Zionist regime” of Israel, which he said is moving closer to its end.
Furthermore, Jafari offered his condolences over death of Aminah Salameh, mother of three Lebanese who are described by the Islamic Republic authorities as "martyrs of the axis of resistance", including Imad Mughniyah.
Paying tribute to the mother of Mughniyah and all members of the anti-Israeli resistance movement, the Iranian general reasserted the IRGC’s pledge of support for the battle against the Zionist regime of Israel until the termination of such “an epitome of evil and crime”.
Several other officials of the Islamic Republic have also joined the chorus in recent days to offer their condolences for the occasion.
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh, alias al-Hajj Radwan, was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership.
Mugniyeh was said to be associated with the Beirut bombings of the Marines and the United States Embassy in 1983, which killed over 350 people as well as the kidnapping of dozens of foreigners in Lebanon in the 1980s. He was also indicted in Argentina for his alleged role in the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires. Mugniyah is thought to have killed more Americans than any other single terrorist before the September 11 attacks.
Ultimately, Mughniyeh was killed on February 12, 2008 by a car bomb blast in the Kfar Suseh neighborhood of Damascus, Syria. He had reportedly been the target of the Israeli Mossad in the 1990s, but Israel denied responsibility for the killing. The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, suggested at the time that internal Hezbollah factions or Syria may be to blame for the killing.
Since Mughniyeh's death, senior political and military figures of the Islamic Republic have continued their close contacts with his parents and relatives. Mughniyah's father died last year and his mother passed away this week.
In the meantime, speaking to a Yemeni TV channel, al Massira, Jafari boasted, “If in the past we could defend Southwest Asia, not dominating it … in 12 minutes, we can do it quicker now.”
Apparently, Jafari's comments were a response to President Donald Trump's recent comment on October 9, in a rally in Iowa.
“Look at Iran, before I got there (to the White House), Iran was going to take the Middle East in about 12 minutes, right? “Trump said at the rally.
The US president argued that since the beginning of his administration the Iranian authorities “are trying to survive”, while there are “riots” in each of their cities .
