Top Iranian general warns Tehran will strike Israel again at ‘appropriate time’
IRGC deputy Ali Fadavi’s hints at future attacks after Netanyahu said Israel ‘can and will finish the job’ against Iranian ‘axis of terror’
A senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general warned Monday that Iran would carry out a third wave of missile strikes against Israel at the “appropriate time,” after Tehran previously launched two rounds of direct attacks on Israel in April and October 2024.
“The True Promise 3 will be carried out in appropriate time,” said deputy commander-in-chief of the IRGC Brigadier General Ali Fadavi at Tehran’s Amirkabir University of Technology, in remarks carried by Iran’s Mehr news agency.
Fadavi also briefly touched on the war in Gaza, which was sparked by the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, claiming that the ongoing ceasefire and hostage release deal was proof that Israel “lost” against the Palestinian terror group.
“Zionist regime officials themselves admit that Hamas won and they lost,” Fadavi claimed.
He was joined at the university, which was marking the 46th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, by representatives of Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, as well as representatives of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Iraqi Hezbollah al-Nujaba militia.
Over the past year, Iran twice fired massive barrages of missiles and drones at Israel, in operations it dubbed True Promise 1 and 2, in a spillover from the war in the Gaza Strip and the fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel in April 2024, firing some 300 attack drones and missiles in response to the killing of several IRGC members in an airstrike near Tehran’s consulate in Damascus.
Months later, in October, it launched some 200 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for the assassinations of former Hamas Hezbollah leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Hasan Nasrallah.
In both instances, the Iranian assaults were largely thwarted by Israel’s air defenses in cooperation with the US and its regional allies. Israel twice bombed Iran in response, the second time destroying much of its air defense systems as well as some rocket and drone manufacturing sites.
While Fadavi did not clarify what prompted his threat on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that Jerusalem “can and will finish the job” against Tehran’s “axis of terror.” His comments prompted Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei to retort that Israel “cannot do a damn thing” to harm Iran.
Earlier this month The Washington Post reported that US intelligence assessments showed Israel is considering strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, and that the attacks could come as soon as mid-year.
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to Israel’s destruction, has formally rejected nuclear weapons. However, it has continued to advance its nuclear program, accelerating the enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90% needed to assemble a nuclear warhead. Critics say there are no civilian purposes for such highly enriched uranium.
Responding to the report, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran’s enemies may be able to strike the country’s nuclear centers but cannot deprive it of its ability to build new ones.
