An Iranian general threatened to destroy Israel with 80,000 missiles, as negotiations with the US and world powers regarding its nuclear program are taking place.
Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that the Islamic Republic was ready to destroy Israel and has tens of thousands of missiles in its arsenal.
“The Zionists and the US are aware of the power of Iran and Hezbollah, and they know that over 80,000 missiles are ready to rain down on Tel Aviv and Haifa; Iran is a powerful country which will give a crushing response to them,” Safavi said on Wednesday. He was reacting to threats allegedly made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to nuke Iran.
He repeated recent statements by Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces, who said that “if the Zionists make a silly move, we will ruin Haifa and Tel Aviv”.
“The Zionists have many problems and they know that Iran is too powerful for them to contend with,” Safavi, a former top commander of the Iranian armed forces, said.
“We have displayed part of our military capabilities while we have kept many of our achievements and capabilities hidden to outsiders. Our response will be crushing not just to the Zionist regime, but to any other aggressor who intends to take action against us,” he added.
In comments made earlier this month at a conference in Jerusalem, Ya’alon mentioned “certain steps” Israel could take if it were out of options.
Referring to “cases in which we feel like we don’t have the answer by surgical operations,” the defense minister said that Israel “might take certain steps that we believe…should be taken in order to defend ourselves,” and he alluded to America’s use of atomic weapons in Japan.
“Of course, we should be sure that we can look at the mirror after the decision, or the operation. Of course, we should be sure that it is a military necessity. We should consider cost and benefit, of course,” he continued.
Hypocritical Complaint
Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Ali Khoshrou lodged a complaint with the UN on Wednesday against Ya’alon, asking the UN Security Council to condemn the remarks as a threat against the “international peace and innocent civilians.”
“The impudent remarks have challenged the primary principles ruling the armed conflicts and the international humanitarian rights and weaken the international peace and security and therefore, the UNSC is expected to condemn these irresponsible remarks and clear threats of using nuclear bomb and massacre of civilians,” the letter added.
Iran has repeatedly threatened Israel existence.
Last week, a ranking Iranian official close to Iran’s Supreme Leader stated that the Tehran government has “divine permission to destroy Israel.”
Mojtaba Zolnour, Khamenei’s deputy representative to the Revolutionary Guards, said, “The Noble Koran permits the Islamic Republic of Iran to destroy Israel.”
In November, Khamenei himself tweeted an infographic, titled “9 key questions about elimination of Israel,” explaining why and how the State of Israel should be destroyed.
By: Max Gelber, United with Isarel
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