The new commander in chief of Iran's military declared over the weekend that Israel will cease to exist in the next 25 years. Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi said that enemies of the Islamic republic should know that Tehran would win any war if it were attacked. Mousavi, speaking at an event in the city of Qom, also mentioned Iranian soldier Mohsen Hojjaji, who was beheaded by the Islamic State after they captured him in Syria. Mousavi said that acts of "sacrifice" by soldiers such as Hojjaji would put an end to Israel's existence in 25 years. He called Iran a "symbol of resistance against the global hegemony" and claimed that the world now understood that it was impossible to wage war on Iran. "Iran will be the one that will design the outcome of any war," Mousavi declared. Remarks about Israel's continued existence similar to Mousavi's have been made by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who in 2015 tweeted that "you [Israel] won't witness the next 25 years" and that Israel would be "persecuted" until it was "annihilated." Khamenei made his statements in response to criticism of him after he was caught on film trampling on an Israeli flag. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the country has viewed Israel as an enemy and calls it "the little Satan," with the epithet "the great Satan" reserved for the United States.
