Eurasia Press & News
The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas missions expressed admiration for the assailants behind the recent attacks in Israel, which he took as a sign of the Jewish state’s vulnerability.
After a chain of deadly attacks inside Israel, commander of Iran’s Quds Force Esmail Ghaani declared that Tehran will support any group fighting Israel.
“We have made it clear to the occupying Zionist regime that any group fighting it will have our blessing,” the hard-line commander added, praising new generations of “Palestinian youths who have shaken the occupied territories.”
Several Israeli cities have been under tightened security after four deadly shooting, stabbing and car-ramming attacks in only three weeks. “This means the Zionists are too weak to stand against the Islamic Republic,” the commander said about Iran’s arch-enemy.
Ghaani, who replaced slain Gen. Qasem Soleimani in 2020, made the comments at a ceremony in Tehran commemorating another commander, Mohammad Hejazi, whose sudden and mysterious death sparked widespread speculation. Iran said the commander succumbed to old chemical injuries he sustained during the war with neighboring Iraq back in the 1980s.
Tensions between Iran and Israel have been high over the past two years. The pair have reportedly targeted one another’s interests at sea and have repeatedly exchanged cyber attacks. The latest escalation occurred last month, when Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles inside Iraq’s Kurdish territory to target what it claimed was an Israeli espionage center, an assertion Iraqi officials have dismissed.
“We do know where you are,” the Iranian commander told Israeli official with regard to the Erbil attack, which in his view was an indication that Iran has been closely monitoring Israel’s regional activities.
Ghaani further warned Israeli authorities, “Our hands are not tied and we will respond robustly wherever in the world our interests come under [Israeli] aggression.”
The commander reasserted the Iranian line that Israel is inching closer to collapse, but refrained from issuing direct threats of annihilation. He noted that Israel’s decline is being accelerated by the “incumbent fragile government” of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
In the wake of the recent attacks in Israel, Iran’s ultraconservatives have been openly supportive of the assailants and their anti-Israeli cause. “The Zionist regime is experiencing a horrible time,” reported Kayhan, a newspaper with ties to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The occupied land is tremendously destabilized,” read the April 14 front page editorial, admiring Palestinian youths for their “multiple unprecedented suicide attacks that have inflicted massive fatalities upon them.”
The overall security situation, according to Kayhan, has prompted many Israelis to contemplate a “reverse exodus” and leave the country, a situation the paper said is tantamount to “the end of Israel.”
