Senior Iranian commander: The Islamic republic is on Israel’s borders

“Today, Hezbollah and Hamas have gained great power and do not need our help anymore, and all of their [Israelis’] locations are within reach of the Lebanese Hezbollah,” Rabbani added.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Senior Iranian commander: The Islamic republic is on Israel’s borders
Iran’s front has extended to the Mediterranean Sea and the borders of Israel, a senior Iranian commander said on Monday.
“Our defensive depth has stretched to the Mediterranean Sea and our front has extended to the borders of the Zionist regime [of Israel],” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brig.-Gen. Mehdi Rabbani was quoted by Iran’s Fars News Agency as saying on Sunday.
“Today, Hezbollah and Hamas have gained great power and do not need our help anymore, and all of their [Israelis’] locations are within reach of the Lebanese Hezbollah,” Rabbani added.
According to a recent report in Haaretz, Iran and Hamas have agreed to open a second front in the south from the Gaza Strip should a war break out in Israel’s North. Israeli officials have warned that any war that breaks out in the North will not be confined to one border – Lebanon, or Syria – but will be fought on both.
Rabbani, who was speaking on Monday at an event in Shahriar, a town near the capital Tehran, claimed that Iran’s military capabilities are growing day by day in such a way that no country in the region could win a ground war against the Islamic republic.
“For at least the next 10 years, no regional or trans-regional country is able to counter or fight against the Islamic Republic of Iran in ground warfare,” he claimed, adding that “our missile power also deters any regional and extra-regional acts of aggression, and the range of the missiles is also increasing constantly.”
Israel has warned repeatedly that it will not allow an Iranian presence in Syria, and has admitted to carrying out hundreds of air strikes, preventing the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah that included surface-to-air missile kits.
Israeli officials have also said that Iran has begun working to transfer weaponry to Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon by sea in order to avoid strikes that have targeted arms shipments. It is believed that Tehran is attempting to entrench itself in Iraq – a mainly Shi’ite country – as it did in Syria, where it has established and consolidated a parallel security structure.
In September, Reuters reported that Iran had transferred ballistic missiles to Shi’ite proxies in Iraq over the course of several months, and that it is developing the capacity to build more there. The missiles that were said to have been transferred include the Fateh-110 – Zolfaqar and Zelzal types – that have ranges of 200-700 km., allowing them to threaten both Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Several mysterious air strikes in Iraq, believed to be targeting Iranian ballistic missiles in the hands of local militias in recent weeks, have been blamed on the Israeli Air Force.
Late last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to an attack across the Golan border, saying that the Jewish state “defends itself all the time.”
“ On the northern front, we are working against Iran and Hezbollah, and you are hearing about it these days,” he said. “This is the iron wall,” he said, referring to Jabotinsky’s famous 1923 essay – “The Iron Wall” – in which Jabotinsky argued that the Arabs would only accept a Jewish presence in what is today’s Israel if they realize that they cannot defeat the Jews.
Last Thursday, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Maj.-Gen. Hossein Salami stated that the IRGC is able to claim global superiority.
“The IRGC Ground Force is enjoying the capacities and capabilities to turn into a superior power on a global scale,” Salami was quoted by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency as saying.
“The IRGC’s Ground Force is at the forefront of all armed forces and defenders of the country in this region confronting a comprehensive collection of anti-Revolution and anti-Establishment enemies,” he said.