MESOP : THE “DIALOGUE PARTNER” AS ANNIHILATOR

A top-ranking Iranian military official threatened Wednesday to fire tens of thousands of rockets at Israeli cities. Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s top military aide and a former commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was quoted as saying, “The Zionists and the US are aware of the power of Iran and Hezbollah, and they know that over 80,000 (Iranian) missiles are ready to rain down on Tel Aviv and Haifa; Iran is a powerful country which will give a crushing response to them.” In his statements, he reminded his listeners that Khamenei has previously warned that if Israel makes a “silly move,” “we will ruin Haifa and Tel Aviv.”

The Israel Defense Forces have assessed that Iran’s proxy Hezbollah has an arsenal of over 100,000 rockets, hundreds of which are capable of hitting anywhere within Israel. Iranian media distorted comments made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon at a conference on May 5. At the conference, Ya’alon said, in response to Hezbollah building infrastructure amongst civilians in southern Lebanese villages, “If we don’t intercept the rocket-launchers in advance, civilians will be hurt, if not killed. If we hit the launchers, it will hurt or kill Lebanese civilians.” He said that Israeli defense officials had a “long, deep discussion” about the “moral and legal considerations” of this matter. Iranian media, however, misquoted Ya’alon as saying that Israel was intending to “hurt Lebanese civilians to include kids of the family.” This is only the latest Iranian threat against Israel.  On April 1, the day before the announcement of the Lausanne understanding between Iran and the P5+1 powers, Commander Mohammad Neza Naghdi, the head of the Basij paramilitary force, said, “The destruction of Israel is non-negotiable and the freedom of Palestine is one of our highest priorities.” Last November, Supreme Leader Khamenei tweeted, “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of #Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated: www.mesop.de