Iran’s president threatens 'harsh response to Israeli aggression'

Ebrahim Raisi says action against his country will prompt a 'harsh response from the armed forces, which will accompany the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv'

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at a ceremony marking the annual National Army Day in Tehran on April 18. EPA

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has threatened to flatten the cities of Haifa and Tel Aviv while marking his country’s annual Army Day.

Speaking at the ceremony, which celebrates Iran’s regular military, not its paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, whose forces operate in different countries in the Middle East, Mr Raisi said that “Enemies, particularly the Zionist regime, have received the message that any tiny action against (our) country will prompt a harsh answer from the armed forces, which will accompany the destruction of Haifa and Tel Aviv”.

The comments came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that his country would continue its “fight” to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, during a Holocaust commemoration ceremony on Monday.

“We are fighting resolutely against any nuclear deal with Iran that will pave its way to nuclear arms,” Mr Netanyahu said in a speech on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Attending the ceremony was former Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi, whose father Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was overthrown in the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

This comes at the backdrop of escalating tension between Iran and Israel.

An Israeli air strike killed two Iran-linked fighters in Syria two weeks ago.

Local media reported a few days later that Israel’s IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said his country is ready to attack Iran and can do so even without support from the United States.

On-off talks between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 landmark deal that sought to curb Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief have stalled since last year.

The 2015 deal with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US collapsed after Washington unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump.

In February, the UN nuclear watchdog said it had detected particles of uranium enriched to 83.7 per cent in Iran, under the 90 per cent needed to produce an atomic bomb.

Iran denies wanting to acquire atomic weapons and said it made no attempt to enrich uranium beyond 60-per cent purity.