Iran’s President Vows to Destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel Attacks

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi vowed Tuesday to destroy the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel takes action against its nascent nuclear weapons program.

Tel Aviv and Haifa are major coastal cities in which important sectors of Israel’s economy are concentrated. Tel Aviv is home to the country’s tech sector, and Haifa has long been an important shipping and industrial hub.

Raisi’s speech, given on Iran’s Army Day, coincided with Israel’s observance of Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom HaShoah Ve-HaGevurah), and a visit to Israel from Iran’s Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose family was ousted in the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The Jerusalem Post reported:

Iran will destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv if Israel takes “the slightest action” against it, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Tuesday during an Army Day address, according to the Iranian Tasnim media agency.

“The extra-regional and American forces should leave the region as soon as possible because it is in their own interest and in the interest of the region,” he said.

…

During his visit [to Israel], Pahlavi underscored a message of unity between the people of Israel and Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic does not represent the majority of the Iranian people.

Israel has faced growing attacks from Iranian-backed proxies on all fronts, as U.S. President Joe Biden reportedly prepares to reach a partial nuclear deal with Iran that would allow it to keep highly-enriched uranium, just short of weapons grade.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated for years that Israel would use a preemptive strike to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Iran has long vowed to destroy the Jewish state.

But Netanyahu’s hand may be weakened by ongoing demonstrations against his government’s judicial reforms, in which the opposition has been backed by the Biden administration.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.