Iran has enough firepower to destroy Israel "in less than eight minutes," a senior Iranian military commander has warned.
Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite unit al-Quds Force, said on Thursday that once Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gives the order to destroy Israel, the Iranian military will have little trouble in "razing the Zionist regime," according to the semi-official Fars News Agency in a report picked up by the Times of Israel.
A senior Iranian general earlier announced that the country's military successfully tested a precision-guided, medium-range ballistic missile that could reach Israel, the state-run Tasnim agency reported.
"We test-fired a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometres and a margin of error of eight meters," Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi was quoted as saying at a Tehran science conference. The eight-meter margin means the "missile enjoys zero error," he told conference participants.
Last March, Iran tested ballistic missiles, including two with the words "Israel must be wiped off the earth" written on them, according to U.S. and other Western sources.
Iran is not forbidden to conduct ballistic missile tests under a nuclear deal signed last year between world powers and Iran. However, the agreement noted that such missile tests would not be "not consistent" with a United Nations Security Council resolution reached in July 2015, U.S. officials say.
Khamenei has several times threatened to erase the Jewish state off the face of the earth. Last September, he posted on his official Twitter account that Israel would not be around "in 25 years," adding that the Jewish state will be hounded until it is destroyed.
"After negotiations, in Zionist regime they said they had no more concern about Iran for next 25 years; I'd say: Firstly, you will not see next 25 years; God willing, there will be nothing as Zionist regime by next 25 years. Secondly, until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists," Iran's top leader was quoted as saying in English.
Earlier in November 2014, Khamenei said the "barbaric" Jewish state "has no cure but to be annihilated."
A plan titled "9 key questions about the elimination of Israel" was posted on his Twitter account, using the hashtag #handsoffalaqsa, in reference to the tensions on the Temple Mount.
