Senior Ayatollah Warns Iran Can Strike U.S. in ‘Less Than Half a Day’

Iran has “domination” over American interests in the region and can strike the U.S. in “less than half a day,” according to a senior Iranian Ayatollah who called for “blood vengeance” against the United States for numerous “American crimes,” following Hamas terrorist leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in the heart of Tehran last week.

In a sermon which aired on Iran’s Khorasan Razavi TV on Friday, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda declared in the shrine city of Mashhad, that Iran’s “blood vengeance” should extend beyond Israel to include the United States.

“We have to apply this blood vengeance against the United States as well,” he declared, according to his remarks that were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which specializes in covering media in the region, as he accused Washington of having given the “green light” for Israel’s targeting of the arch-terrorist on Iranian soil.

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Claiming that Iran dominates U.S. interests, the influential prayer leader and father-in-law of Iran’s late President Ebrahim Raisi (known as the “Butcher of Tehran”) warned that Tehran can swiftly strike to avenge “American crimes.”

“Fortunately, we have such domination today over American interests and centers that, if we want, we can carry out strikes against the U.S. in less than half a day,” he asserted, adding that “these strikes would compensate not only for one terrorist attack, but for hundreds of American crimes.”

He then referenced Iran’s 2020 Al-Asad strike, which he insisted demonstrated the Islamic Republic’s capability to devastate U.S. bases.

“The largest American military base is the Al-Asad Airbase in Al-Anbar, in Iraq. We showed, with just eight missiles following the martyrdom of Hajj Qassem Soleimani, that this base is in our crosshairs,” he said. “The experts say that had we launched forty missiles, instead of eight, nothing would have remained of the Al-Assad Airbase, and no American would have survived there.” 

“This [base] is in our crosshairs,” he added.

On Monday, security sources reported that two Katyusha rockets hit the air base, which hosts US and international forces, following last week’s rocket launch near the base.

The senior cleric also warned that Iran can destroy the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and disrupt Gulf shipping:

The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet base, off the coast of Bahrain, is close to Iran’s islands. If we decide to hit it, nothing will remain from the U.S. navy capabilities in the region. In addition, the American shops that carry fuel and commodities travel back and forth in the Persian Gulf [and] if we decide to close the passage to the Persian Gulf, all the American shops in the middle of the Persian Gulf will immediately turn into dust and ashes, by our power.

“Well, these are our capabilities today. If we want to take revenge, it [must] not be only against Israel,” he added. “We have to take revenge on America too.”

In 2020, Alamolhoda warned that Iran’s missiles can target palaces in countries hosting U.S. bases, calling the bases a danger while likening Iran to a victim of “predatory” American wolves.

“Iran must fight America like a goat fights off wolves with its horns,” he stated.

Iranian leaders have long expressed radical sentiments against the United States.

In April, Iranian “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has ranted against the “evil nature” of the West, lauded the pro-Palestinian protests across U.S. college campuses, particularly praising the chants “against Israel and America,” while depicting the radical demonstrations sweeping the country as a form of victory for the Islamic regime over the “ruined” Western democracies.

The Islamic theocrat previously celebrated the demise of “the arrogant power of America” in a speech in Tehran on the 22nd anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the U.S. homeland by radical Muslim terrorists.

In November, he declared that the common chant of “Death to America” in his country is “not just a slogan – it is a policy,” one his regime intended to bring to fruition.

After an IDF strike in Beirut on Tuesday, the Iranian-proxy terror group Hezbollah confirmed the death of its “No. 2” commander, Fuad Shukr, who was accused of being the mastermind behind a rocket attack that resulted in the deaths of a dozen youths in Israel’s Golan Heights, as well as a deadly attack on U.S. Marines decades ago.

On Wednesday, Hamas terror organization political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran, after the presidential inauguration of new president Masoud Pezeshkian and after having met with “Supreme Leader” Ali Khamenei, together with the leaders of other terrorist groups, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis.

Haniyeh, who once called Al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden an “Arab holy warrior” whose assassination was “a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood,” was favored significantly by Palestinians over Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

In response to the Israeli airstrike on Tehran, Iran’s capital city, that killed Haniyeh, the so-called “Supreme Leader” called for a direct attack on Israel.

The Jewish State is currently “counting the minutes until an Iranian attack,” according to Israel’s Army Radio, broadcasting at 7:00 a.m. Monday, local time.