The new head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization this month, led a missile program he boasted was capable of “annihilating” Israel.
Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami will be promoted as the next head of the IRGC, replacing Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Salami, the architect of a massive buildup in Iran’s advanced ballistic missiles, has boasted of a system capable of “annihilating” Israel.
He also worked to implement policies that enabled Iran to hide its nuclear weapons program from international inspectors.
The Free Beacon reported, citing U.S. officials and regional experts, the appointment of Salami is meant to solidify Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s hardline agenda.
Tehran, the experts say, has no desire to halt its regional terror operations in hotspots such as Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.
Salami led a 2016 efforts by the Islamic Republic to boost its missile production in areas such as Lebanon, where they could easily strike the Jewish state.
“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,” Salami said in 2016.
“In Lebanon alone, over 100,000 missiles are ready to be launched,” he warned. “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.”
Salami has insisted several times that Iran remains committed to the destruction of Israel.
“Iran’s policies towards the terrorist groups and the Zionist regime will not change, and this regime will be vanished from the global political scene,” Salami said in 2015.
Salami also has led Iranian efforts to block international nuclear inspectors.
“We’ll not let them even watch the doors of the sites,” Salami stated in 2017.
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