Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami declared on Wednesday that the Hezbollah terrorist organization "has acquired capabilities in Syria that allow it to destroy Israel alone", i24News reports.
Salami also addressed the escalating tensions with the United States following the back-and-forth seizures of tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s breaches of the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
"The Iranian people forgot about talking to the United States and removed it from his thought," he was quoted as having said in reference to suggestions in recent weeks of possible talks between the nations following international calls to reduce tensions.
Salami went so far as to say that "negotiating with the US is not the way to resolve [matters],” arguing that simply having talks with the US will only increase the pressure and demands on the Ayatollah regime "to make us surrender."
The comments follow a warning earlier this week by a Lebanese parliamentarian from Hezbollah who claimed that Israel is preparing to start a war against Lebanon.
Salami’s declaration seems to affirm Israel's concerns over Iranian-backed activity in Syria, where Iran provides the regime of Bashar Al-Assad with both financial aid and military advisers against a range of opposing forces.
In recent years there have been several air strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria, some of which have been blamed on Israel.
Minister Tzachi Hanegbi of the Likud boasted recently that Israel is the only country that "has been killing Iranians", a reference to Israeli strikes in Syria against Iranian and Hezbollah military targets.
