Iranian Military Chief of Staff Warns Tehran ‘Won’t Tolerate Threats’ Posed by Israel

The Islamic Republic and the Jewish State have no diplomatic relations, with Iran denying Israel’s right to exist, and Tel Aviv repeatedly pledging to do its best to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Major General Mohammad Hossein, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, has warned that Tehran would not tolerate “espionage and threats posed by the Israeli regime.”

“A number of regional countries have exposed the region to a series of threats by normalizing ties with the Zionist regime,” Hossein told reporters on Sunday, adding that Tel Aviv “joining the terrorist US Central Command could create threats” to Tehran.

He also referred to reports suggesting that “the enemies deploy small unmanned reconnaissance units in the waters, which pose a risk to maritime security.”

The general underscored that “the maritime security laws and freedom of navigation in international waters must be enforced equally for everyone” and that Iranian forces “fully safeguard such rights of our nation.”

“We make it clear that our vessels will not tolerate such [foreign unmanned] units in their routes and will take action against them in the same way that it has already happened," Hossein added.

The remarks came a few days after the Iranian Navy said that it had released two American surface drones hours after seizing them in the Red Sea, accusing the unmanned vessels of endangering maritime safety.

“The [Iranian navy] frigate Jamaran seized the two vessels [last Thursday] to prevent any possible accident after issuing warnings to the US fleet. After international shipping lanes were secured, the two vessels were released in a safe area,” according to state-run Iranian media reports.

The incident followed the naval forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) briefly seizing an American unmanned surface vessel that had reportedly become stranded in the Persian Gulf. According to the IRGC Navy, the US “tried to portray the development as an unprovoked attempt by the IRGC to capture the military vessel.”

In a separate development last Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the US Central Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, where he met CENTCOM chief General Michael Kurilla.

According to the US Department of Defense, the two agreed to “continue to expand cooperation in the face of Iran’s aggression.”

Gantz, for his part, said that the US and Israel will “expand the actions required to target Iranian proxies and ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon”. According to him, both sides “understand the need to make sure Iran never has a nuclear umbrella under which it can spread terrorism and threaten the world and the Middle East”.

Washington and Tel Aviv have repeatedly accused Tehran of trying to obtain a nuclear weapon, while Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Simmering tensions between Tehran and Washington deteriorated after the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018. The tensions escalated further after top IRGC general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike authorized by then-US President Donald Trump in January 2020.

Tehran and Tel Aviv have no diplomatic relations as Iran refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and has threatened to wipe the Jewish State off the map.