Destroying Israel ‘achievable goal’

TEHRAN: The commander of Iran´s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday that destroying arch-rival Israel was an "achievable goal".

"This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer ... a dream (but) it is an achievable goal," Major General Hossein Salami said, quoted by the Guards´ Sepah news site. Four decades on from Iran´s Islamic revolution, "we have managed to obtain the capacity to destroy the imposter Zionist regime", he said.

Salami´s comments, while not unusual for Iranian officials, come amid particularly heightened international tensions over Iran´s nuclear programme and a series of incidents that have raised fears of a confrontation between Tehran and its other main regional rival, Riyadh.

The US, which withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2018, has imposed a campaign of "maximum pressure" -- with vocal support from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Salami´s comments were given prominent coverage by the Tasnim and Fars news agencies, close to ultra-conservative political factions.