Iranian government leaders propose a preemptive military strike against Israel, a senior Iranian official said yesterday. [ Top Iran officials recommend preemptive strike against Israel ] The threat comes as Iran continues to train and arm terrorist groups that specifically target Israel.
Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and director of a research institute associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in a statement in London yesterday, said that a small group of experienced Iranian leaders are pushing for an attack on Israel in response to threats by Israeli officials to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. Safavi also said the Islamic Republic plans to target Israel in retaliation for an American or Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In addition to saying they want Israel “wiped off the map,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior officials continuously state that they seek Israel’s elimination.
As the world’s chief sponsor of terrorism, Iran continues to attack Israel through its proxies Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Although Israel has experienced a decrease in rocket attacks since it entered a cease-fire with Hamas in June 2008, Hamas violated the agreement on Tuesday with another rocket attack [ Feature: Life with and without rockets’ boom ].
Today, Iran-backed Hamas justified the killing of an 86-year-old Israeli man by a Palestinian terrorist. [ Hamas: Jerusalem stabbing is natural response to Israeli aggression ]
In the incident, a 20-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed al-Badan, stabbed Abraham Ozeri to death and also seriously wounded a policeman.
Iran’s Qods Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – a branch of the Iranian military – has had a long history of supporting terrorist organizations that target Israel. Iran has provided funding, material support, training and intelligence services to Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).
Israel says these terrorist groups, which share the same basic ideological goals as Iran’s leadership, are in many ways extensions of Iran’s military network. They act as proxies for Tehran by attacking Israeli targets while providing reasonable deniability for the Iranian government on the international stage.
