Iran could launch pre-emptive strike on Israel, Guards commander warns
Lebanon news – NOW Lebanon -Iran could launch pre-emptive strike on Israel, Guards commander warns.
( God, I hope Israel takes care of this before it’s too late… – JW )
Iran could launch a pre-emptive strike if Israel prepares to attack it, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander told the broadcaster Al-Alam on Sunday, a day after his boss warned conflict was inevitable.
Should Israel and Iran engage militarily, “nothing is predictable… and it will turn into World War III,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh told Iran’s Arabic-language television network.
Hajizadeh, who is in charge of the Revolutionary Guards’ missile systems, said: “In circumstances in which [the Israelis] have prepared everything for an attack, it is possible that we will make a pre-emptive attack. But we do not see this at the moment.”
He added that Iran would deem any Israeli strike to be conducted with US authorization, so “whether the Zionist regime attacks with or without US knowledge, then we will definitely attack US bases in Bahrain, Qatar and Afghanistan.”
He warned that Israel “cannot imagine our response—and it will sustain heavy damage and that will be a prelude to its obliteration.”
On Saturday, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said war between Iran and Israel “will eventually happen, but it is not certain where and when.”
It was the first time a senior Iranian official had acknowledged a probability of war breaking out between the two arch-foes.
Jafari, quoted by the ISNA and Fars news agencies, also said such a conflict would lead to the annihilation of Israel.
“If they begin [aggression], it will spell their destruction and will be the end of the story,” he said.
Tensions have risen significantly in recent weeks, with Israel threatening to unleash air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Israel believes Iran’s nuclear program to be aimed at developing an atomic weapons capability that would menace its own existence, and its current status as the Middle East’s sole, if undeclared, nuclear weapons power.
Iran insists its program is exclusively for peaceful, civilian ends, but it is locked in a deepening standoff with the UN nuclear watchdog and the UN Security Council over the issue.
-AFP
WarSclerotic 
September 23, 2012 at 3:12 PM
it will be www111 for iran,as there wont be an iran afterwards,the rest of the world will go great job israel and there Chinese backers will be more concerned about there oil supply or lack of it,no one will help iran,it shows how pathetic and desperate they are,i doubt they could attack themselves with that pile of junk they call their army,bows and arrows thats all the RGC will have to fight with
September 23, 2012 at 4:27 PM
Justice For Israel is right again, the iranians ” do not see this at the moment ”, and they won’t see this coming, either.
There are not too many options for Israel. In fact, Israel has only one option in this conflict : total victory and the annihilation of those bad boys.
September 23, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Iran also needs to be seen as the victim. They wont attach first.
September 23, 2012 at 7:23 PM
This and more: an iranian first strike, being as nasty and surprising as it can be, will be followed by an all out attack on Iran. They don’t want this.
September 23, 2012 at 8:10 PM
Israel is going to act no later than mid-October. Possibly on Yom Kippur.
Will Iran strike first? While they’d like to portray Israel as the aggressor they know they’ve already made as much progress as they can on their nuke program. If they strike first they know they can damage Israel more.
I’m sure there’s a major debate going on right now in Iran whether to go first or not.
September 24, 2012 at 4:58 PM
Maybe on Yom Kippur… maybe while Ahmadinejad is in NY?