“The Zionist regime will have to sustain another missile attack if it repeats the evil acts against Iran,” the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) commander threatened.
Major General Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the IRGC, cautioned Israel on Wednesday to “abandon its mischievous actions,” saying that “the Zionists, who always miscalculate, have received heavy blows in the IRGC’s recent missile strike,” Iranian news outlets reported.
He was referring to Iran’s missile attack on the Iraqi city of Erbil earlier this month in which it claimed it destroyed “a strategic center of Zionists,” a Mossad base.
“The center hit by the missiles was a place where a remarkable number of Zionists gathered, and considering the number of people present in that base, the likelihood of the regime’s human toll is very high,” Iran claimed.
Salami warned that “if the Zionists do not stop their evil acts, the small openings that have been created for them in the world will be closed forever.”
He noted that “the IRGC does not only hold funerals for the martyrs, but will immediately take revenge for them.”
He was apparently referring to the two Iranian officers who were killed in an Israeli airstrike at the beginning of the month.
“This is a serious and real message,” Salami added, warning Israel that “the repetition of mistakes will force it to experience another missile attack from the IRGC.”
Salami’s threats come as the US is exploring the option of removing the IRGC from its Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) list as part of the renewed nuclear deal with Tehran.
President Donald Trump announced in April 2019 his Administration’s move to designate the IRGC, including its Qods Force (QF), as a FTO. This designation is the first time that the US has ever named a part of another government as an FTO.
The IRGC is an independent military force accountable to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A branch of the IRGC, the Qods Force, was commanded by the notorious General Qassem Soleimani and is responsible for spreading Iran’s subversive activities and terrorism across the Middle East and to other points around the globe. The IRGC is Iran’s primary tool to implement its global terrorist campaign, including through the Hezbollah and Hamas terror organizations.
The US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism for 2020, published in December 2021, stated that the IRGC “remained the primary Iranian actors involved in supporting terrorist recruitment, financing, and plots across Europe, Africa, and Asia, and both Americas.”
Iran “continued to use the IRGC-QF to advance Iran’s interests abroad. Iran also continued to acknowledge the active involvement of the IRGC-QF in the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, the latter in support of the Assad regime. Through the IRGC-QF, Iran continued its support to several US-designated terrorist groups, providing funding, training, weapons, and equipment,” the report stated.
“Among the groups receiving support from Iran are Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, al-Ashtar Brigades and Saraya al-Mukhtar in Bahrain, and Kata’ib Hizballah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) in Iraq. Iran also provided weapons and support to other militant groups in Iraq and Syria, to the Houthis in Yemen, and to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Iran-backed militias escalated the pace of attacks on Embassy Baghdad and Iraqi bases hosting the US and other Defeat-ISIS forces,” the report added.
