Iranian leaders are very outspoken about their plans with Israel and have repeatedly warned that the ‘Zionist project’ or the Zionist ‘cancer tumor’ will be erased very soon.
Already for a long time Israel’s political establishment realizes that this is not merely rhetoric but a very important part of Iran’s strategy for regional hegemony.
Although Shia Islam doesn’t have any connection to Jerusalem, the Iranian leadership nevertheless is acting as if it’s the holy duty of every Shiite to join the relentless efforts to destabilize Israel and to cause its demise.
For this reason, the regime of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has named the division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) which is tasked with exporting the Islamic Revolution after Jerusalem or al-Quds in Arabic.
Recently a massive drill with remote-controlled unmanned combat aircraft (UAV’s) got the code name “Bayt al-Maqdis” or Beit HaMaqdish in Hebrew.
Bayt al-Maqdis (or Temple in English) was the name the early Muslims gave to Jerusalem.
By naming a drill with attack drones after Jerusalem the regime made clear that the exercise was a preparation for war with Israel.
When we take a look at what’s currently going on in Syria and Iraq the contours of Iran’s grand strategy for the elimination of Israel, which was designed by Qassem Soleimani the shrewd commander of the Quds Force of the IRGC, become visible.
Iran is clearly trying to turn Iraq into another proxy-state while Syria has already been transformed into a second Lebanon and has been brought under the control of the Quds Force.
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani recently paid a three-day-visit to Iraq where he was granted a rare meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq.
After arriving in Baghdad, Rouhani signed trade and travel agreements which aim to boost economic relations between Iran and Iraq and to offset the damage done by the re-introduction of a heavy sanction regime on Iran by the United States.
The new Iraqi government is made up of many supporters of Iran and has reduced ties with the US while allowing the Iranian-founded Hashd al-Shaabi umbrella organization of predominantly Shiite militias to control the territory of northwest Iraq.
This is the territory Iran needed to complete its land bridge which stretches from Tehran all the way to the Israeli border on the Golan Heights and the Mediterranean Sea.
According to Israeli Iran-expert Jonathan Spyer Hashd al-Shaabi units are beginning to constitute a “second power” in Iraq and are chasing down or murdering any critic of Iran’s increasing entrenchment in the war-torn country.
Iran is also negotiating with the Assad regime over use of a container port on the Mediterranean coast in the Latakia Province.
Officially Iran seeks this port for economic reasons but the Israeli government is convinced the port will be used by the Iranian naval forces in a future war with Israel.
There’s more.
Last week Iran was again caught building a new missile facility in Syria.
The Israeli company ImageSat International published satellite images which showed a new plant where missiles will be assembled.
The plant is located in Safita in north western Syria and is only eight kilometers away from the border with Lebanon.
Iran’s blind hatred for Israel was this week best illustrated by its so-called moderate President Rouhani.
The Iranian leader called upon Iranians to put their “curses” on “the Zionists” and the US as well on Saudi Arabia for re-imposing new sanctions on Iran and for the very difficult economic situation in the Islamic Republic.
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