WarSclerotic

A top Iranian general lashed out at Israel during a ceremony marking ten years since the death of Hezbollah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus that Hezbollah blamed on Israel.

Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, pledged retaliation for the Mughniyeh’s assassination. Before his assassination, Mughniyeh was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists.

The appropriate revenge for Mughniyeh’s slaying is “not launching one missile or killing one person,” Soleimani declared, “but the dismantling and uprooting of the baby-killing Zionist regime.”

Iranian leaders have long called for destruction of Israel. In 2015, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel would be extinct in 25 years.

Iran does not recognize Israel and supports terrorist groups such as Hamas and Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Iran’s president strongly criticized the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and urged Muslims to support the Palestinian cause.

President Hassan Rouhani also lashed out at the U.S. for imposing a ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries. He was addressing a congregation after Friday prayers at Mecca Masjid in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad during a three-day visit to India.

Rouhani called for unity between the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam. He said the Shiites, Sunnis and people of other ethnicities coexisted peacefully in Iraq and Syria for centuries until the West created discord there.

Rouhani was to meet on Saturday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

He said India and Iran were the cradles of Asian civilization, and that this century and the next would belong to Asia.