Hossein Salami
Hossein SalamiReuters

A senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) recently threatened Israel, saying the ground is ready for the annihilation of “the Zionist regime”.

The comments by IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami were made at a sermon in Tehran this past Friday prior to prayers marking Al-Quds Day.

He also declared that Iran has over 100,000 missiles waiting in Lebanon alone and that tens of thousands of other missiles were placed throughout the Muslim world in order to wipe "the accursed black dot" – that is Israel – from the map of the world.

Salami also threatened Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq to keep their promises, saying that Iran would "completely destroy any place that constitutes a threat to our regime." The sermon was broadcast on IRIB TV and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Today, more than ever, there is fertile ground - with the grace of God - for the annihilation, the wiping out, and the collapse of the Zionist regime,” he said, according to the transcript provided by MEMRI.

“In Lebanon alone,” declared Salami, “over 100,000 missiles are ready to be launched. If there is a will, if it serves [our] interests, and if the Zionist regime repeats its past mistakes due to its miscalculations, these missiles will pierce through space, and will strike at the heart of the Zionist regime. They will prepare the ground for its great collapse in the new era.”

“Tens of thousands of other high-precision, long-range missiles, with the necessary destructive capabilities, have been placed in various places throughout the Islamic world. They are just waiting for the command, so that when the trigger is pulled, the accursed black dot will be wiped off the geopolitical map of the world, once and for all,” he threatened.

Salami, like many other Iranian political and military leaders, is notorious for his anti-Israel comments.

He has in the past declared that Iran “can destroy every spot which is under the Zionist regime's control”.

Salami previously said that Iran “could minimize the breathing room of the U.S. and the West until the Zionist regime would no longer have room to breathe.”