Iranian President Tells US To Leave Israel As He Plans To Bomb Major Cities

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi marked the regime’s annual “Army Day” on Tuesday by warning Israel that any hostile move against Iran would lead to the destruction of major population centers and calling on the United States to withdraw its troops from the region.

“The extra-regional and American forces should leave the region as soon as possible because it is in their own interests and the interests of the region,” Raisi said during a military parade in Tehran featuring army units, displays of missiles and combat drones, and flyovers by helicopters and fighter jets.

“The presence of foreign forces threatens regional security but our armed forces provide security wherever they are present in the region,” he said.

“The enemy, especially the Zionist regime, has received this message that the slightest move against the country will invoke a severe response by the armed forces and will be accompanied by the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” Raisi added.

Iran supports and funds several terrorist groups sworn to Israel’s destruction, notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Israel regularly carries out airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria, including those linked to arms shipments destined for Hezbollah.

In January, Iran blamed Israel for drone attacks against a weapons factory in Isfahan, and after Iran-backed terrorists fired rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon this month, Israel retaliated with air strikes across its northern border.

Although threats directed at Israel and the U.S. are routine, in a reflection of shifting regional dynamics Raisi used this year’s Army Day speech to offer “peace and friendship” to neighboring countries, some of which have been locked in bitter rivalry with Iran for years.

He did not name them, but Iran’s long-strained relations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are showing signs of warming, following a China-brokered agreement between Tehran and Riyadh to retore ties after a seven-year freeze.

“The message of the Army Day ceremony is a message of peace and friendship for the countries of the region, and our armed forces warmly shake any hand that wants to maintain security for the region today,” Raisi said.

“The nations of the region should also know that the message of the authority of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic will be hope and security for them, and that our valiant army will always provide them with comfort and peace.”

Raisi also said the Iranian armed forces “ensure security not only for their own country but also for the entire region.”

Regional shifts

The U.S. government’s view of the Iranian regime as the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism and a malign influence in the region has largely been shared by most Arab Gulf leaders in recent years. The rift placed them on opposite sides of the civil wars in Yemen and Syria, and at odds over Lebanon’s perennial political crises.

The Iran-Saudi thaw has renewed hopes for a resolution to the costly civil war in Yemen, which pitted a Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognized government against Iran-backed Houthi rebels. An exchange of hundreds of prisoners began late last week.

Arab Gulf states have also softened their stance towards Syrian President Bashar Assad, a close ally of Iran who became a pariah in much of the Arab world after anti-government protests and a harsh crackdown in 2011 spiraled into civil war. In the latest sign of rapprochement, the Saudi foreign minister met with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

Marked on April 18 since 1979, Army Day extols Iran’s regular armed forces, not the more powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is deeply involved in the regime’s regional military interventions.

Still, a message of goodwill to Iran’s neighbors also came Tuesday from the commander of the IRGC, Major General Hossein Salami.

“We wish nothing but security and stability for the states of the region and in fact the message of today’s military parade for the neighboring countries was that we support the Muslim nations and do not leave them alone in difficult situations,” the IRGC-affiliated Fars news agency quoted him as saying on the sidelines of the ceremonies.

The tone set by Raisi in his speech Tuesday contrasts to a visit to Israel by Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah of Iran who died in exile after being ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Pahlavi says he supports a peaceful transition to a secular democracy in his homeland and a restoration of the historical bonds between the people of Iran and Israel. He met with Israeli leaders, attended the country’s Holocaust Memorial Day event, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and paid a condolence call to a family that lost a mother and her two daughters in a recent Palestinian terrorist attack.

In Tehran, the regime responded dismissively to the visit.

“Neither the person you have mentioned nor his trip and the place where he is traveling to are worthy of comment,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said when asked about the visit during a press briefing on Monday.