Adviser to Iran’s Khamenei is looking to 'raze Tel Aviv to the ground'
In a recent interview, Mohsen Rezaei said that Iran would use any US activity as a pretext to attack Israel.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALMohsen Rezaee(photo credit: TASNIM NEWS AGENCY/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
Ahead of the governments of France and Germany congratulating Iran’s regime on its Islamic Revolution this week, an Iranian politician who advises the supreme leader said his nation was looking for an excuse to obliterate Tel Aviv.Mohsen Rezaee said: “We would raze Tel Aviv to the ground for sure. We have been looking for such a pretext,” according to a translation from the Middle East Media Research Institute. He added that “if they [the US] do something, we can use it as a pretext to attack Israel.”According to MEMRI, Rezaei is the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council and a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander-in-chief. His comment about razing Tel Aviv was aired during an interview on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) on February 8.Rezaei said: “We would raze Tel Aviv to the ground for sure. We have been looking for such a pretext. If they do something, we can use it as a pretext to attack Israel, because Israel played a role in the martyrdom of Gen. [Qasem] Soleimani. It was the Israelis who reported about the martyr Soleimani’s trip from Damascus to Baghdad. We were waiting for the Americans to give us a pretext to strike Tel Aviv, just like we attacked Ain al-Asad.”The US government assassinated Soleimani in January. He was the head of Iran’s Quds Force and responsible for the murders of over 600 US military personnel in the Middle East, according to the US government. The US and the EU classified Soleimani as a foreign terrorist.Rezaei serves as adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.Interpol put Rezaei on its most-wanted list for his role in connection with the 1994 bombing that murdered 85 people at a Jewish community center in Argentina.He said during the interview that “American hegemony in the region is in a state of disintegration and instability. By proposing the ‘Deal of the Century,’ they are looking for a firm and stable foothold on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in order to do away with the Palestinian cause once and for all, and in order to take over Gaza and disarm Hamas.”He added that he expects “a significant weakening of the US over the next decade. If it does not leave the region completely, it will become very weak. As soon as the Saudi people and the peoples of the Persian Gulf feel that America is not what it used to be, there will be a revolution in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it will be followed by revolutions in the other countries in the Persian Gulf.”He claimed that “Iran will be the standard-bearer of America’s exit from the region.”
The regime in Tehran frequently declares “Death to America” and is the worst state sponsor of terrorism, according to the US State Department.Germany’s foreign ministry under Social Democratic chief diplomat Heiko Mass told The Jerusalem Post last week that Germany will celebrate Iran’s Islamic Revolution.French President Emmanuel Macron, according to a report in Iran’s state-controlled Mehr News, sent a congratulatory note to the mullah regime.“In a message sent to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the Iranian government and nation on the 41st anniversary of victory of the Islamic Revolution,” wrote Mehr News.The Post could not verify the Mehr News report prior to publication.
