Kioumars Heydari, the commander of Iran's army ground forces, has once again warned Israel against military action amid the ongoing shadow war between the two nations.
According to the Tasnim News Agency, closely linked with the Revolutionary Guards, Heydari declared, "If a threat against us originates from the Zionist regime, it will be responded to from the Islamic Republic."
In a detailed account of military actions, Heydari highlighted the April 13 operation where Iran launched hundreds of projectiles at Israel, though nearly all were intercepted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and a US-backed coalition.
In the latest state propaganda against Israel lauding the attack, he claimed that this operation “advanced the prospect of Israel's destruction”, rhetoric repeated for many years as Iran has waged a proxy war against the Jewish state, funding terror groups across Israel’s borders.
The ongoing tension between Iran and Israel is marked by a series of alleged cyber-attacks, assassinations of key figures, and missile strikes, reflecting a deep-rooted shadow war going back years.
It is speculated that Israel carried out two major acts of sabotage in 2020 and 2021 targeting Iran’s substantial nuclear facility in Natanz, situated in the heart of the country.
Most recently Iran has been at the heart of the Middle East conflict which saw Iran-backed Hamas invade Israel on October 7. Since then Iran’s proxies have joined the war from countries including Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq, targeting both Israel and the US.