Iran official: We’ll bolster our military until Israel is overthrown

Escalating Iran’s rhetoric against Israel, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps vowed Wednesday that the regime would boost its military capabilities relentlessly until Israel was destroyed.

“The Islamic Revolution will continue enhancing its preparedness until it overthrows Israel and liberates Palestine,” the IRGC’s Tehran province commander, Brigadier General Mohsen Kazzemeini, said in an address in Tehran, the semi-state Fars news agency reported.

He also vowed that Iran would maintain its aid to those who fight Israel. “We will continue defending not just our own country, but also all the oppressed people of the world, specially those countries that are standing on the forefront of confrontation with the Zionists,” Kazzemeini said.

Kazzemeini was speaking as Iran started two days of major drills in the capital, involving 250,000 personnel, designed to “practice fighting against security threats,” Fars said.

These drills followed reports Tuesday that Iran has bolstered defenses at its nuclear facilities, introduced new radar systems, and “raised its alert” for fear of an Israeli attack.

The regime has being carrying out a series of drills and exercises, including testing anti-aircraft missiles above its Bushehr reactor, an Israel Channel 10 report said Tuesday.

It said the regime is particularly concerned by the threat of attack in the current period between July’s finalizing of a deal with the P5+1 world powers on its nuclear program and the approval of the deal by the US Congress.

Israel has been a prominent opponent of the deal, which it argues entrenches the regime, provides sanctions relief which will enable Iran to fund terrorism, and paves Iran’s path to the bomb.

In its report on Gen. Kazzemeini’s speech Wednesday, Fars recalled that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an address to Tehran students last year, called for the “full annihilation and destruction of the Zionist regime.”

On Tuesday, the commander of IRGC, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, threatened Israel, saying “its security will not be preserved” and asserting that the dangers posed to Israel were “growing greater by the day.”