Speaking to an Iranian news agency Thursday, a senior military commander bragged the Iranian army could “raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes” if given the order, The Times of Israel reported.
Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit al-Quds Force told the semi-official Fars News Agency that it was only a matter of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei giving the command.
“If the Supreme Leader’s orders [are] to be executed, with the abilities and the equipment at our disposal, we will raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes,” Karimpour said.
Karimpour’s is not the only threatening boast by a senior Iranian military official in the past month. According to the state-run Tasnim agency, Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi announced at a science conference on May 9 that two weeks earlier, the Islamic Republic’s armed forces successfully tested a precision-guided, medium-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel.
“We test-fired a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers (almost 1243 miles) and a margin of error of eight meters (about 26 feet),” which effectively means the “missile enjoys zero error,” he told participants at the conference.
Both of these comments are in keeping with Iranian aggression towards Israel. In March, the Islamic Republic test-fired two ballistic missiles, reportedly emblazoned with the words “Israel must be wiped off the Earth” in Hebrew. While such missile tests are not strictly forbidden by the terms of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 world powers, they are “not consistent” with a United Nations Security Council resolution from July 2015, according to US officials.
Likewise last fall, Khamenei posted threatening tweets, claiming Israel would not be around in 25 years.
“After negotiations, in Zionist regime they said they had no more concern about Iran for next 25 years; I’d say: Firstly, you will not see next 25 years; God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by next 25 years. Secondly, until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists,” Khamenei wrote in broken English.
He made his position clear the previous November when he published “9 key questions about the elimination of Israel”, also on Twitter, outlining why and how the Jewish State was to be wiped out. It begins, “the fake Zionist regime has tried to realize its goals by means of infanticide, homicide, violence & iron fist while boasts about it blatantly,” and therefore, “the only means of bringing Israeli crimes to an end is the elimination of this regime.”
Israel must take solace in the fact that
“There are many devices in a man’s heart; but the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.” (Proverbs 19:21)
