If “this occupying regime…does anything foolish, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” Khatami threatened.
By: United with Israel Staff
Following a devastating IDF airstrike on Iranian military bases in Syria, a prominent Iranian cleric on Friday threatened two Israeli cities with destruction if the Jewish state “acts foolishly” and again attacks Iranian interests.
“If you want Haifa and Tel Aviv to be razed to the ground, you can try your chance once again,” Iranian cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami stated.
Khatami’s comments followed a week of escalating tensions in which Iran launched 20 rockets at Israel. Israel’s Air Force retaliated by wiping out nearly Iran’s entire military infrastructure in Syria.
Israeli airstrikes hit Iranian military installations inside Syria on Thursday, its biggest coordinated assault on that country since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. It was the most serious military confrontation between the two rivals to date.
Khatami referenced Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s oft-stated prediction that Israel will be destroyed within 25 years, saying that the Jewish state could face destruction if it continues to challenge Iran.
“The holy system of the Islamic Republic will step up its missile capabilities day by day so that Israel, this occupying regime, will become sleepless and the nightmare will constantly haunt it that if it does anything foolish, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground,” he said, according to state television.
His remarks drew chants of “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” from those gathered for Friday prayers in Tehran.
Iran announced earlier this year that it will be hosting the “Hourglass Festival” this month in anticipation of Israel’s “imminent collapse.”
Kahtami has issued similar threats against Israel in the past.
He also asserted that Europe could not be trusted after President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal earlier last week.
“These European signatories also cannot be trusted … Iran’s enemies cannot be trusted,” Khatami said.