Iran’s liaison between the nation’s Supreme Leader and its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force threatened that “Tel Aviv and Haifa will be razed to the ground” by Iran, if the Islamic Republic is given a pretext, The Times of Israel reported Thursday. Thursday is  commemorated as Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel.

The threat was the second one made during the past week by an Iranian official.

According to a translation of remarks originally made to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, Ali Shirazi said, “Iran has the capability to destroy Israel and given the excuse, Tel Aviv and Haifa will be razed to the ground.” He further said that Iran would destroy Israel if the Jewish state continues its “childish game.”

Shirazi made the threat in the wake of an airstrike on a Syrian airbase earlier this week. The airstrike was widely attributed to Israel, though Israeli officials have not publicly confirmed it, and it claimed the lives of seven Iranian military personnel including a colonel. Previously, Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened Israel in the wake of the airstrike saying, “the crimes will not remain unanswered.”

In his Friday sermon last week, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a senior member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, threatened Israel generally, and both Tel Aviv and Haifa specifically.  “Despite the fact that Hezbollah is stronger today than ever,” Khatami said, “if you want Tel Aviv and Haifa razed to the ground, try your chances again.”

He also referenced Khamenei’s often-stated prediction that Israel will be destroyed within 25 years, saying, “Perhaps it is God’s will that, with all the madness they are causing, [Israel] will be destroyed even before.”

In line with Khamenei’s prediction of Israel’s destruction, Iran announced earlier this year that it will be hosting its first Hourglass Festival this month in anticipation of Israel’s “imminent collapse.” Despite the genocidal nature of the so-called festival, Twitter allows it to maintain an account, Israel Hourglass.

[Photo: Mehr News]