Iran General: Military Buildup Won’t Stop Until ‘Full Annihilation and Destruction’ of Israel

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander (IRGC) stated Wednesday that Iran will not stop building up its military until Israel is annihilated.

The United States and Israel “should know that the Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine,” Iranian Brigadier General Mohsen Kazzemeini said Wednesday, while leading military drills in Tehran, according to Iran’s state-run Fars News.

“And we will continue defending not just our own country, but also all the oppressed people of the world, specifically those countries that are standing on the forefront of confrontation with the Zionists,” he added, likely referring to Iran’s consistent support of terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime in Syria.

He said that the only way to deal with Israel “is full annihilation and destruction of the Zionist regime.” Kazzemeini encouraged Palestinians to continue the “armed struggle against Tel Aviv,” according to the Fars News readout.

Kazzemeini spoke in the midst of military drills that involved some 250,000 personnel, the report stated.

The General’s comments came on the same day that members of Iran’s Basij militia took to the former U.S. embassy in Tehran and proceeded to set fire to the flags of the United States, Britain, and Israel. The militia members were at the embassy to celebrate the unveiling of a plaque on the former U.S. embassy fence that displayed 100 derogatory terms to describe the U.S., according to an AFP report.

The Fars News report also recounted the recent statements of Iran’s theocratic leader, Ali Khamenei, who told a crowd in Tehran last year, “The armed resistance by the Palestinians is the only way to confront Israel,” according to the report. Khamenei’s statement follows a mid-August call for the Islamic world to “combat the plans” of the West “with jihad for the sake of Allah.”

Separately, on Wednesday, the Iranian nuclear deal reached the number of commitments in Congress needed for President Obama to veto a motion of disapproval without having to worry about the possibility of it being overturned, with Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) stating that she would vote to approve the nuclear deal.