Members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) marching in a parade. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Any new war in the Middle East “will lead to the eradication of the Zionist regime,” the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps declared on Thursday, according to the semi-official state news agency Fars.

Israel — Maj. Gen, Mohammad Ali Jafari asserted to reporters in Tehran — saw “a part of the resistance front’s power during the 33-day and 22-day wars (the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead) and today that the great resistance front has been formed, this word has been proven.”

“The fate of the resistance front is interwoven and they all stand united and if Israel attacks a part of it, the other component of the front will help it,” Jafari claimed.

Jafari’s comments came as Lebanon stood on a knife’s edge amid the ongoing political intrigue surrounding Prime Minister Saad Hariri and following the recent launch of a missile from Yemen at Riyadh — an “act of war” that Saudi Arabia blamed on Iran-backed Hezbollah.

In an interview published last week by the Saudi newspaper Elaph, the chief of staff of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, said the IDF had no intention of initiating an offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and accused Iran of seeking to escalate tensions there.

Meanwhile, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted on Thursday by the semi-official state news agency Mehr as calling Israel a “cancerous tumor” that “should be fought against.”

“Wherever there is a need for our presence, we will provide help and are not afraid to say so,” Khamenei stated at a conference in the Iranian capital. “We will have no inhibitions when confronting arrogant powers.”