This archive report was first published on 30 September 2019.
Major General Hossein Salami, Iran's top general, has made headlines with his vow to destroy Israel, calling it an 'achievable goal'.
Speaking in September 2019, Salami stated, "This sinister regime must be wiped off the map and this is no longer... a dream (but) it is an achievable goal," as quoted by the Guards' Sepah news site.
Salami's comments come amid heightened international tensions over Iran's nuclear programme and a series of incidents that have raised fears of a confrontation between Tehran and its regional rival, Riyadh.
The United States, 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.
Iran has been consistently hostile towards Israel since its 1979 revolution, and Tehran openly supports anti-Israeli armed groups including Palestinian Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reaffirmed Tehran's position on Israel in June 2018, stating that it is "a malignant cancerous tumor that must be removed and eradicated".
