Chief of Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani (left)
Chief of Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani (left)Reuters

Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, gave a rare interview Tuesday in which he claimed that Israel missed a chance to assassinate him and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Soleimani claimed that he and Nasrallah were targeted by an Israeli UAV strike during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

He said that he, Nasrallah, and then-Hezbollah second in command Imad Mughniyeh were in a Hezbollah "situation room" in the Dahiyeh neighborhood in Beirut and that Israeli drones were constantly flying overhead and spying on them.

According to Soleimani, one time they left the "situation room" and were spotted by a drone.

“When we reached the vehicle, the UAV aimed at the car,” he said. He went on to state that the drone struck several nearby buildings instead of the vehicle the terror leaders had attempted to reach.

Soleimani further threatened that Iran would destroy Israel in a future war. "We have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the impostor Zionist regime,” and that Iran had "defeated" the American military in front of the entire world.