Israel under 'artificial respiration', its collapse 'very close': IRGC chief

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the Israeli regime will collapse soon, noting the United States is openly supporting Israel so that the occupying entity could control and regulate Washington’s policies.

Major General Hossein Salami made the remarks on Friday as he addressed millions of Iranians in Tehran, who had taken to the streets to show solidarity with the Palestinians and condemn Israeli atrocities on the occasion of International Quds Day.

“The Zionist regime is a dagger that the deceitful and evil British monarchy thrust into the body of the Muslim Ummah 75 years ago. Later on, criminal US administrations emboldened the regime as a political, security, and geographical crossroad in the Muslim world to employ it as leverage to control and adjust their policies,” Salami pointed out.

He went on to describe Israel as a fake regime at the service of certain Western countries’ malicious policies, stressing that the usurping regime’s countless crimes have disrupted the security of Palestine as well as other Arab and Muslim nations.

The IRGC chief went on to say that Israel, backed by the United States, Britain and France, unleashed wars to forcibly drive Palestinians out of their homeland and displace them.

He stated that the Deir Yassin, Kafr Qasim and Qana massacres, the Israeli military's 33-day war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 as well as Gaza wars are all straightforward examples that the regime continues to massacre Muslims.

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“America, lacking political insight, has sustained heavy economic and political costs and psychological burdens to support and perk up a doomed regime, whose collapse is very close,” the IRGC commander pointed out.

The commander added that the US is salvaging Israel and extending its existence with "artificial respiration," and that it will collapse as soon as the US draws back its support.

“Zionists and their American supporters believe the more Muslims they kill, besiege, and displace, the better they can live. This is while the situation is the opposite.

"The Zionist regime is struggling between life and death and knows that if it continues the war in Gaza and even if it withdraws [from the territory], it will still fail,” he stated.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Salami warned Israel that it would certainly receive a response for a deadly missile strike against the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in Syria.

“We warn that not a single action from any enemy against our sacred establishment will go unanswered,” the IRGC chief said.

Echoing remarks made by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the general said the Iranian forces would punish Israel.

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