Friday, February 14, 2020

Iranian commander: We're ready to strike the US and Israel

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Thursday warned that Iran is ready to strike the United States and Israel if they give it any reason to do so.
 
"If you make the slightest error, we will hit both of you," Major General Hossein Salami said in a speech at a ceremony marking the 40th day since the death of top commander Qassem Soleimani, according to Reuters.
 
Soleimani, who was head of the Quds Force, a branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside Iran, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3 along with Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
 
Earlier on Thursday, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards said the killing of Soleimani will lead to the liberation of Jerusalem.
 
"The cowardly and craven assassination of commander Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis by the Americans will lead to the liberation of Jerusalem, by the grace of God," the spokesman, Ramezan Sharif, said, according to Reuters.
 
Iranian officials have upped their rhetoric against both the US and Israel in recent days.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that Iran “will give a crushing response that will cause regret to any kind of aggression or stupid action from this regime against our country’s interests in Syria and the region.”
 
Previously, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard warned in a TV interview that Iran will "raze Tel Aviv to the ground" if it is attacked by the US.
 
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei regularly threatens Israel and has several times in the past threatened to "annihilate" the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa.
 
In November, he stressed, however, that his country is not against the Jews, only against the “Israeli regime” and the State of Israel, which he described as an "imposed state".