What the Iranian Regime has been doing in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine (mostly Gaza) and Yemen is destabilising and warmongering. Nothing else. Iran has used its proxy militias (Hezbollah, Hamas, Popular Mobilisation Forces, Houthis, to create havoc and turn the Middle East into a war zone.
The majority of the population and leadership of the Middle East do not trust the Iranian Regime’s policy anymore and the mullahs’ claim of standing up to Israel has become a joke.
Of course, Iran will not stop using that rhetoric against Israel. the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, Mohsen Rezaei told Hezbollah’s Beirut-based Al Manar TV that Iran “will level Tel Aviv to the ground” in response to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent comments at the Munich’ security conference.
Netanyahu had warned Iran “not to test Israel’s resolve”.
Rezaei responded: “If the Israelis carry out the slightest unwise move against Iran, we will level Tel Aviv to the ground and will not give any opportunity to Netanyahu to flee. The US and Israeli leaders don’t know Iran and don’t understand the power of resistance and therefore, they continuously face defeat.”
Sound peaceful, doesn’t it?
Rezaei later described Iran as part of the “resistance front” and wrongly claimed that Iran doesn’t interfere in the political affairs of other countries in the Middle East.
Of course, Iran is not the first country to attack Israel in such a fashion, but it seems likely that Rezaie’s comments are anything other than a hollow attempt to distract the international community from Iran’s destructive actions in Syria and around the Middle East.
Iran’s true goal in the Middle East is to establish itself as the super-regional power and there are two factors that are currently helping it get there.
1) A leadership vacuum in many Middle Eastern countries, which allows Iran to penetrate with its proxies
2) The allyship of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who provided valuable air cover for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah to advance in Syria
However, Iran may still sacrifice their relationship with Russia in favour of targeting Israel. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov openly criticised Rezaie’s comments in front of Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif, last week.
Lavrov said: “We have stated many times that we won’t accept the statements that Israel, as a Zionist state, should be destroyed and wiped off the map. I believe this is an absolutely wrong way to advance one’s own interests.”