Some foreign policy analysts have, in the past, claimed that when Iranian officials call for the eradication of Israel, they mean that peacefully. This will not help:Iranian officials have warned that their reaction to perceived aggressions would likely would be expressed in one of two ways. The first, one of the sources said, would be “a blow below the belt in more than one location,” both within and outside of Syria, as they approached “the Day of Judgment.” The same source indicated that “a final decision has been taken to turn the Golan Heights into the new ‘Fatahland’ and the front will be open to “Syrians, Palestinians and to all who want to fight Israel.”

Observers bluntly described the calls as “war-like declarations.”

The reference to striking below the belt, in turn, is presumably a reference to terrorism to be conducted against Israeli civilians and interests globally. Tehran has dramatically increased the scope and sophistication of its global terror network in recent years. Just the last few weeks have seen Iranian operatives tried or convicted of terrorism on three separate continents.

The Assad declared during a from the Iranian foreign minister Tuesday that Syria was ready to confront Israel. The remarked were conveyed by both Iran’s Fars News Agency and Hezbollah’s Al-Manar quoted Assad as saying:

The Syrian people and its army who have made important achievements by fighting terrorist and Takfiri groups are capable of confronting Israel’s ventures that represent one of the many faces of terrorism targeting Syria today.

Syrian state media quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi adding that “it was time to deter Israel from carrying out such aggression against the people of the region.”

Salehi’s unannounced visit to Syria came after he had visited Jordan for talks with King Abdullah II on “issues of mutual interest” and to inaugurate a new Iranian embassy building.

[Photo: OgreBot / Wiki Commons]