Iranian leaders have declared that Iran now possesses the capability to destroy Israel, with a top military commander saying they have "more than 100,000 missiles" ready to strike at the heart of the Jewish nation, CBN News reports.
The latest warnings from Tehran gave more credence to a statement issued by a senior Israeli defence official last month that the Iranian regime represents the greatest threat to Israel's security.
Three top Iranian leaders – Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani and military commander Hossein Salami – issued separate statements last week, all of them warning Israel that its days maybe numbered.
Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Rouhani as saying that the recent nuclear deal with the United States "was the cheapest way to achieve Iran's goals and interests."
Those national interests include the destruction of America and Israel.
The Jerusalem Post, meanwhile, reported Salami's threat that "more than 100,000 missiles are ready to fly from Lebanon" all with Israeli targets. "Today, the grounds for the annihilation and collapse of the Zionist regime are present more than ever," Salami said.
"If the Zionists make a wrong move, all the occupied terrorists will come under attack from dedicated fighters and, God willing, the terrorists will be liberated," he added.
Khamenei, for his part, spoke of a different means that Iran could use against Israel. Iran's supreme leader reportedly called on Muslim students to wage an ideological war against the Jewish nation.
"By using advanced means of communication and in cyberspace, general campaigns can be formed by Muslim students based on the opposition to the policies of the U.S. and Zionist regime of Israel so that when needed, millions of young Muslim students create a big movement in the Islamic world," he was quoted as saying.
Last month, Amos Gilad, director of the Israeli Defence Ministry's Political-Military Affairs Department, warned that the Iranian regime could potentially become an existential threat to Israel, according to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News.
Gilad warned that the threat posed by the Shi'ite regime could grow significantly.
"The Iranian threat has the potential to become existential. The Iranians agreed to delay their nuclear weapons programme by 10 years. The infrastructure is there and there is a debate whether the regime has become more moderate or not. I tend to think that it hasn't, so long as Khamenei is the [spiritual] leader," he said.
Gilad said Iran has used the nuclear deal to fund a massive expansion of its missile programme.
"Under the cover of the deal they're developing surface-to-surface missile capabilities in Iran and Hezbollah [controlled territory in Lebanon]. In Lebanon there are now more than 100,000 rockets pointed towards Israel. They've identified that front [with Israel] as a vulnerable point."
