A senior member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) on Tuesday downplayed the threat of an Israeli attack on Iran, saying any Israeli operation would likely be “limited.”
“I assure the (Iranian) people with certainty that the Zionists will not undertake any significant or substantial action; whatever they do will be nothing more than a desperate attempt,” said Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, who was the top commander of the IRGC from 2007 to 2019, according to Iran’s PressTV.
“The Zionist regime may carry out a desperate, limited, and minor attack,” Jafari said. He insisted that Israel could “definitely cannot” carry out an operation on the scale of Iran’s October 1 missile attack on Israel, which came in response to a series of Israeli escalations in the region.
Jafari also vowed that Iran would hit back harder if Israel did launch a “significant” attack. “Iran’s response depends on the intensity of the enemy’s attack. If a significant action is taken, the response will certainly be several times greater,” he said.
Jafari made the comments at an event commemorating Abbas Nilforoushan, a senior IRGC official who was killed by Israel in the strike that killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. The killing of Nilforoushan was listed as one of Iran’s reasons for the October 1 attack, dubbed Operation True Promise II.
Back in April, Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in response to the Israeli bombing of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, which killed seven Iranians, including a senior IRGC commander. In response, Israel carried out an attack on Iran that reportedly damaged an Iranian air defense system. Iranian officials downplayed the attack, and Tehran did not retaliate.
