Iranian weapons en route to Hamas intercepted by Israeli navy in March 2014. (IDF)
As world powers rushed to conclude a framework nuclear deal with Iran, an Iranian military leader declared that destroying Israel was “non-negotiable.”
On Tuesday, the day of the original deadline for a framework agreement in the nuclear negotiations between the P5+1 and Iran, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, declared that “erasing Israel off the map” was “non-negotiable,” according to an Israel Radio report.
“The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back,” he said in August 2014. At the time, the Islamic Republic vowed to “accelerate” its re-arming of Arabs in the Palestinian Authority-administered areas of Judea and Samaria.
Iran “will accelerate the arming of the West Bank and we reserve the right to give any response,” General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh stated in August on Sepah News, the official website of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), just a day after claiming that Iran had shot down an Israeli spy drone flying over its air space.
Iran is a major supplier of weapons to Hamas as well, including Iranian-made Fajr rockets and several dozen Syrian-produced M-302 rockets, based on Iranian technology, which have the range to strike deep inside Israel. In July, one of these rockets flew over 100 kilometers to hit Hadera, a town near the northern city of Haifa.
Furious Netanyahu: Insist on Better Iran Deal
Prime Minister Netanyahu (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
“Yesterday, an Iranian general brazenly declared, and I quote, ‘Israel’s destruction is non-negotiable’, but evidently, giving Iran’s murderous regime a clear path to the bomb is negotiable,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in fury on Wednesday. “This is unconscionable. I agree with those who have said that Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes doesn’t square with Iran’s insistence on keeping underground nuclear facilities, advanced centrifuges and a heavy water reactor. Nor does it square with Iran’s insistence on developing ICBMs and its refusal to come clean with the IAEA on its past weaponization efforts. At the same time, Iran is accelerating its campaign of terror, subjugation and conquest throughout the region, most recently in Yemen.
“The concessions offered to Iran in Lausanne would ensure a bad deal that would endanger Israel, the Middle East and the peace of the world,” the Israeli leader continued. “Now is the time for the international community to insist on a better deal. A better deal would significantly roll back Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. A better deal would link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to a change in Iran’s behavior. Iran must stop its aggression in the region, stop its terrorism throughout the world and stop its threats to annihilate Israel. That should be non-negotiable, and that’s the deal that the world powers must insist upon.”
By: United with Israel Staff