Recently, I had a discussion with a renowned Israeli Middle East expert who thinks the Netanyahu government is exaggerating the threat posed to Israel by Iran.
He pointed to the fact that Iran’s military is inferior compared to the Israel Defense Forces, giving as an example Iran’s fleet of warplanes, no match for the Israeli Air Force (IAF).
I then reminded him of recent remarks made by Qassem Soleimani, the shrewd commander of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) which is tasked with exporting the Islamic Revolution, and said he was wrong about Iran’s capabilities and the threat it poses to Israel.
Responding to threats made by US President Donald Trump Soleimani warned the United States that in any future war Iran would destroy all the US possesions and made clear how the Islamic Republic would achieve this.
“You know our power in the region and our capabilities in asymmetric war. We will act and we will work," the Quds Force commander said at the time.
Soleimani’s rare statement about Iran’s asymmetric warfare capabilities came inti mind again when the IDF revealed it had started Operation Northern Shield.
The operation in northern Israel aims to destroy the cross-border attack tunnels built by the IRGC-founded and supported Lebanese terror organization, Hezbollah.
The construction of these terror tunnels is part of the ongoing Iranian effort to undermine Israel and the United States via asymmetric warfare.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu told reporters during a press conference in Tel Aviv Tuesday that the IDF was trying to “neutralize a network of cross-border terror tunnels built by Hezbollah with direct support and funding from Iran.”
“It is also part of a regional and global terror effort led by Iran,” according to the Israeli leader, who explained Operation Northern Shield is part of a comprehensive effort to curb Iran’s belligerent activities in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq where the IRGC recently supplied ballistic missiles to Shiite militias of the umbrella organization Hashd al-Shaabi. READ MORE
