Iran’s supreme leader appointed a new chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on Sunday, just days after the United States designated the force – and its extraterritorial branch, the Quds Force – as a foreign terrorist organization.
Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, who has vowed to “cleanse the planet from the filth” of the United States and Israel, was handpicked by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to replace Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari, who led the force for 11 years. Until now, Salami served as a deputy commander in the IRGC.
Salami has frequently vowed to destroy Israel and has threatened to “break” the United States and its Arab allies. In January, the IRGC official said that, “Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map.”
After an attack on a military parade in the city of Ahvaz last year, Salami threatened what he called the “triangle” of Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States. “You are responsible for these actions; you will face the repercussions,” he said. Salami previously boasted that the Iranian-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah has 100,000 missiles aimed at Israel.
The high-ranking military official also said that if war broke out between Israel and Iran, “You can be assured that it will result in wiping you off.” In 2015, he said Iran would “welcome war” with the United States.
In addition to the significant control it exerts over Iran’s economy, the IRGC-QF specializes in foreign missions and providing training, funding, and weapons to extremist groups. The IRGC also controls Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Although Iran insists that its ballistic missile program is purely defensive, Salami threatened in November 2017 that if European governments insisted on negotiating over Iran’s missile program, Iran would increase the range of the missiles to reach Europe.
UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which formalized the 2015 nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic, “calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”
[Photo: PressTV / YouTube]