Iranian officials, clerics and military commanders made pompous remarks about the demise of Israel on the last Friday of Ramadan, the regime’s Quds Day.
Those with a controversial background made the most outlandish hard-line comments to prove their loyalty to the regime.
The rhetoric used on Qods Day speeches were a mixture of impolite, uneducated and politically incorrect opinions and part of Iran's rationalization of its irrational phobia about Israel's influence in the region.
Deputy IRGC Commander for Political Affairs General Yadollah Javani who was implicated last year in an infiltration case involving an alleged Israeli agent, Catherine Shakdam, a former consultant for UNSC on Yemen, went out of his way to threaten Israel's Jewish people rather than the Israeli government. He said, "The Jews should know that Israel is no longer a place to live," and told them "pack your suitcases!"
Javani stressed: "Israel should be wiped off [the map] and this is something that will materialize and the Jewish people will have to return to their home countries." Javani who was speaking in Rasht in northern Iran said the enemies are downplaying the importance of the Quds Day by creating doubts among young Iranians.
In Tehran, the day was marked in one of the Iranian capital's smallest squares, the Palestine Square and later on Revolution Square, a slightly larger venue to make sure that the people who were bussed in would fill the space.
Javani claimed the Quds Day is now an international event. This was against the fact that some counties including Germany have reportedly banned Quds Day events.
He further claimed that recent unrest in Israel was a sign of its impending destruction, adding that the "Zionist regime" is no longer capable of surviving.
In Tehran, the former Judiciary Chief who currently chairs the Expediency Council, another insider implicated in major financial corruption cases, claimed the issue of Quds [meaning the problem of Palestine] is the world's biggest problem.
Another speaker, vice president for economic affairs, Mohsen Rezaei, said that Iran is collaborating with regional counties to create a strategic alliance against Israel. He was obviously mindless of the fact that nearly all Persian Gulf Arab countries maintain friendly ties and trade and cultural relations with Israel.
The rhetoric against Israel was also heightened IRGC-linked Fars news agency which recycled old comments by Khamenei on Israel. The report quoted Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as saying that by wiping Israel [off the map] he meant that one day the Palestinians will elect their own government, and this is something that will most certainly happen.
Highlighting that Khamenei does not call for the destruction of the Jewish people stems from the fear of Israeli threats to attack Iran's nuclear facilities even without US help.
Khamenei is also utterly shaken by recent attacks attributed to Israel on Iran's military interests in Syria. Some recent reports indicated that Israel had attacked the depots of Iranian military equipment airlifted to Syria disguised as relief aid following a recent earthquake in the region. Iran has named at least three IRGC commanders who were killed during Israeli strikes.
On the other hand, Tehran hopes that news of conflicts in Israel and missile attacks on the country will overshadow the fiasco that followed alleged Israeli attacks on Iran's drone factory in Esfahan. Regime insiders might even hope that the anti-Israeli propaganda would downplay the importance of nationwide protests in Iran and rally Iranians behind the regime.
This hope was dashed by low turnout in Quds Day rallies as Iranians continue to defy the regime, especially rejecting its campaign to force women to use hijab.
Tensions have been high between Iran and Azerbaijan since November 2022 when both sides accused each other of engaging in terrorism and espionage. Iran has also suggested Azerbaijani involvement in the October 26 attack in Shiraz claimed by the Islamic State group (Isis-Daesh).
While some pundits allege that Tehran is awaiting a wrong move by Azerbaijan to attack the country, international relations expert Ali Bigdeli in Tehran told Rouydad 24 news website that the possibility of military conflict between Tehran and Baku is “nil” while criticizing Russia for “silence” over the situation given its close relations with both.
Tehran has also accused Baku of harboring Israeli intelligence and military elements that plan to use its territory in a possible attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “The [Azerbaijani] soil is a base for Israel from where it can threaten Iran's security,” Bigdeli said.
He pointed out that Israel has succeeded in “infiltrating” not only Azerbaijan but also other countries including Iran's neighbor Turkmenistan and Central Asian states. At the same time, Shia Iran's attempts to create “centers of resistance” in Azerbaijan where, unlike its Sunni rulers, 60 percent of the population are Shiites irritates Baku.
Around a quarter of Iran’s population is Azari, with analysts and activists disagreeing over the closeness of their cultural-linguistic links to their neighbors to the north.
Hamed Khosroshahi, a Caucasus region researcher in Tehran, expressed a similar view about the possibility of war between Tehran and Baku in an interview with Donya-ye Eghtesad daily. The possibility of war is near zero because both Iran and Azerbaijan are aware that that they have ties that cannot be altered.
Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan enclave bordering Iran needs to procure gas and oil through Iran on the one hand and Iran's dependence on transit to Russia through Azerbaijan, are important factors he said. “The two sides know that they should not allow tensions rise beyond a certain level.”
While saying that the two countries are currently “appraising” their military power, Vali Khalaji, Caucasus region and Central Asia analyst in Tehran, said escalation of tensions would not necessarily end in war and could instead result in “relaxation of tensions” given factors including interdependent transit needs.
Current tensions are closely tied to the recent escalation between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan on Friday accused Azerbaijan of preparing for military escalation. Baku vehemently denies the charge while accusing Yerevan of violating the Prague and Sochi agreements.
A transit corridor through Syunik province of Armenia which Azerbaijan is demanding to secure access to its Nakhichevan Autonomous region without Armenian checkpoints will disconnect Iran from its de facto ally and trade partner Armenia.
Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov met with Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Friday and among other topics, according to Armen Press, discussed “unblocking of all economic and transport links in the region” and the Nagorno Karabakh issue.
Azerbaijan closed its embassy in Tehran afteran armed attack on Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran in January and earlier this month expelled four Iranian diplomats over what it called “provocative actions” which may refer to Iran's several military drills along the border with Azerbaijan in the past year including the latest in October.
Fresh skirmishes at Armenian-Azerbaijani border earlier this week left a total of seven deaths from both sides in one day around the contested Nagarno-Karabakh region. The Islamic Republic says it is neutral in the conflict, but it apparently backs its de facto ally Armenia and has warned it would not tolerate changes to international borders.
Ramezan Sharif was quoted by IRGC-affiliated Fars news website Saturday said Israel has repeatedly issued similar statements, but he has one message and that is: The situation of the Americans in the region is such that they cannot support the Zionists.
Israel has long threatened that if the Islamic Republic gets close to obtaining a nuclear weapon it will use all methods including a direct military attack to prevent it. President Joe Biden has also vowed not to allow the Iranian regime to produce nuclear weapons, with “all options on the table.”
But Tehran has been emboldened by a recent agreement with Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic relations, mediated by China. It sees itself as not so isolated in the region and believes that a possible threat of an Israeli-Arab military alliance has receded.
China brokering a deal between two regional rivals has been widely seen as a defeat for the United States in the region and the ascendance of Chinese influence in the Middle East.
Sharif also said that “The Americans seem to be trying not to fall into the lap of the Zionists, because they know that if Zionists take action against us our in-kind retaliation will engulf the bases of those supporting them.”
However, the United States has continued to pledge its readiness to support Israel and held large joint military drills in January.
The US Navy also announced April 8 the deployment of a guided-missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East, in what appeared to be a show of force toward Iran following recent tensions in Syria and rocket attacks on Israel.
IRGC’s spokesman went on to say that Israeli statements about attacking Iran without American help stem from US messages that they are not able to assist Israel as the case was in the past and “are not ready to enter a battle [knowing] where it would end.”
After the agreement to restore ties with Saudi Arabia was announced March 10 in Beijing, Iran has become more aggressive against Israel, openly calling on its allies and militant proxies to attack the Jewish state. The new belligerent policy was reinforced by massive anti-government protests in Israel against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the commander of IRGC’s extraterritorial Quds Force, Esmail Qaani has held a series of secret meetings with leaders of Iran’s armed proxy groups in recent weeks to plan attacks against Israel.
The Journal said that to coordinate a rocket a rocket attack from Lebanon on Israel in early April Qaani met in Beirut, with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and his deputy Saleh al-Arouri and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
IRGC’s chief commander Gen. Hossein Salami on Friday boasted that “The Zionist regime is the target of military attacks by all countries and does not even know from where the attacks are coming.” Salami was speaking at a ceremony marking the anti-Israeli Quds Day in Esfahan, central Iran. He took credit for the attacks saying that the Islamic Republic is now a source of legitimacy for regional countries, while just a few months ago they had distanced themselves from Tehran.
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi speaking in Tehran on the Quds Day reiterated that the liberation of Quds (Jerusalem) is imminent; “Closer than you can imagine,” adding that “the normalization of relations with regional states [such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain] has not brought and will not bring security for the Zionist regime.”