Iran’s Deputy Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami threatened Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he’d better learn to swim because Beirut-based Hezbollah militia is ready to drive Israel into the Mediterranean Sea. While there’s nothing unusual about Iran’s threats against Israel, Iran’s presence near the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights in Syria presents a national security threat to Israel. “Practice swimming in the Mediterranean,” said Salami, telling Netanyahu that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards with its Hamas and Hezbollah’s partners are prepared to destroy Israel. “I tell the prime minister of the Zionist regime to practice swimming in the Mediterranean because soon you will have no choice but flee into the sea,” Salami told Iran’s conservative Fars News Service. Tensions have ratcheted up recently because of Iran’s involvement in Syria.
Since 72-year-old President Donald Trump pulled out the Iranian Nuke Deal May 8, Iran has upped the ante, threatening the U.S. and Israel. Iran’s U.S.-educated Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, who negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPA] over two years with former Secretary of State John Kerry, signed July 14, 2015, slammed Trump for backing out of the deal. With Iran in a proxy war in Yemen with Saudi Arabia, Trump needed more leverage over Iran, canceling the Nuke Deal to re-start punitive economic sanctions. With Iran feeling he economic pinch, the rhetoric has become more bellicose toward Israel. Netanyahu practically stood on his head opposing Obama’s Nuke Deal because it had no real enforcement mechanism. Iran hasn’t permitted the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] to inspect Iran’s sensitive military sites.
When Obama led the P5+1 [U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany] to complete the JCPA, there were urgent concerns that Iran was making weapons grade uranium for numerous atomic bombs. Iran’s vigorously denied the charge that it was working on a bomb, despite the fact that it negotiated an end to its nuclear enrichment programs. When Trump decided to cancel the agreement, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani threatened to ramp up its uranium enrichment programs, unless the other four signatories on the JCPA agreed to continue the sanctions relief. Trump wanted to impose new sanctions to halt Iran’s proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, but also discourage Iran’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah, both sworn enemies of Israel. Speaking at rally to the Basij volunteer militia in Isfahan, Salami said with Iran’s help, Hezbollah could destroy Israel.
Salami told the Basij gathering that Israel was not match for Iran but could be easily taken easily destroyed by Hezbollah. “They are not a t the level of being a threat for use. Hezbollah is enough for destroying them,” Salami said, knowing that Hezbollah had been-there-and-done than. Battling to loggerheads from July 13, 2006 to Aug. 14, 2006, Israei lost 141 soldiers to Hezobollah’s 250. But the real damage happened to Beirut’s civilian population and infrastructure, something Lebanon doesn’t want to repeat. It’s easy to talk of Hezbollah going to war with Israel when he’s not considering the devastation to fall on Lebanaon. Hundreds of Lebanese civilians were killed all because Hezbollah’s Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah decided to fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel. Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri wants no part of Hezbollah’s warmongering with Israel.
Trump, Netanyahu and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo see Iran as the Mideast’s chief sponsor of state terrorism, especially for supplying arms-and-cash to Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Applying new sanctions on Iran has caused Iran’s Rial currency to plummet against the U.S. dollar and Euro. Hitting a record low of 42,105 Ridal to one U.S. dollar, Iran’s economy is already in shambles. Any war with Israel or the U.S. would drive the Iranian economy further into depression. All the rhetoric from Salami mirrors the fact that U.S. economic sanction are starting to hit the Iranian economy. When Iran wants to get back at the U.S., it threatens Israel. While threatening to attack U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf, the survival-obsessed Mullah regime won’t challenge the U.S. militarily. Iran prefers to threaten Israel knowing the consequences of attacking the U.S.
Iran’s been threatening Israel for years, when former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be wiped off the map in 2005. While Netanyahu considers Iran and existential threat, Iran has never attacked Israel, other than firing Scud missiles at Israel during the 2003 Iraq War. “In 25 years time, with the grace of God, no such thing as the Zionist regime will exist in the region,” said Salami. Israel’s Mideast enemies have been saying the same thing since May 14, 1948, the day Israel declared its independence. Iran uses Israel to pretend it has something in common with Arab Gulf States, currently at war with Yemen’s Houthi rebels. Delivering rockets to Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran’s no friend to the U.S., anything but. Arab Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia, have learned a bitter lesson about Iran: It’s out for Iran’s interests. More hostile rhetoric only adds to Mideast tensions.
