Iran’s president on Tuesday used the country’s annual Army Day to repeat blood curdling threats to destroy Israel while adding for good measure a demand the U.S. exit the Middle East immediately.
The comments by Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi came as fighter jets and helicopters flew overhead in Tehran, and as Iranian submarines sailed across its waters during a ceremony carried live by state television.
AP reports the day was a celebration of Iran’s regular military, not its paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), whose expeditionary forces operate across the wider Mideast and aid Iranian-allied militia groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
The Guard also routinely has encounters with the U.S. Navy in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, as Breitbart News reported.
WATCH: Iran Speedboats Close on U.S. Navy Warship
Speaking at the ceremony, Raisi continued a long tradition of threatening Israel with destruction.
“Enemies, particularly the Zionist regime, has receive the message that any tiny action against (our) country will prompt a harsh answer from the armed forces, which will accompany the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” Raisi said.
Raisi also reiterated a long-standing demand for the U.S. to leave the Middle East or face the same fate as Israel.
American policy since the Carter administration has viewed protection of the Persian Gulf region as crucial to securing global energy supplies.
A fifth of the world’s supply of oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Iran has previously warned the U.S. its vessels must be prepared to be attacked, with IRGC commander Hossein Salami making dire threats of retribution against warships that defy his speedboats.
The practise is known as “swarming” and depends upon multiple Iran speedboats attacking a single target in the hope of overwhelming the defenses.
A boastful Salami previously declared Iran’s borders are secure against all and any intruders.
Salami has also claimed “mind games” are used by U.S. forces to confound and confuse his forces, adding “the enemy tries to turn the people against the government in Iran and has waged big psychological warfare targeting the people’s minds.”