Iran marks Army Day with cries of ‘Death to Israel, US’
http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-marks-army-day-with-cries-of-death-to-israel-us/
Iran on Saturday marked Army Day with a military parade featuring new weapons systems, as well as a truck carrying a massive banner reading “Death to Israel.” A televised broadcast of the parade was punctuated by repeated cries of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” “If Israel makes a mistake,” the announcer on Iran television said during the broadcast, as heavy trucks carrying armored personnel carriers rolled past, “those in Tel Aviv and Haifa will not sleep at night, not one person.” Broadcast on national television, military brass and political leaders, foremost President Hassan Rouhani, attended the procession south of the capital Tehran, which showcased the country’s military technologies. Among the weapons systems paraded past dignitaries was a domestically produced version of the Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile, the Bavar 373.
Iran on Friday accused the United States of creating the murderous Islamic State, Boko Haram and al-Nusrah terrorist groups. The commander of Iran’s ground forces, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, said the US had established these terror groups to harm Islam and bolster Israel’s security. “The ISIL (another name for Islamic State), Boko Haram and al-Nusrah have been created in line with the US strategy of religion against religion, which seeks to impair the divine face of Islam,” Pourdastan said, according to the Iranian Fars news agency. “The American and European people’s high tendency towards Islam and (the necessity for) protection of the Zionist regime’s security have caused the US to create the terrorist groups,” he added, in an address at Tehran University. A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader issued similar accusations earlier in the week. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top adviser for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, called extremist groups including Islamic State “the protégés of the Americans.” Khamenei himself routinely calls for “Death to America,” even as the US leads world powers in negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. Talks aimed at reaching a final deal by June 30 are set to resume next week. President Barack Obama on Friday left the door open to meeting Iran’s demand for all sanctions to be lifted on the day the deal takes effect, although the US has hitherto stated that a framework agreement reached in Lausanne earlier this month provides only for phased relief of sanctions as Iran complies with elements of the deal. The Lausanne talks went ahead as a senior Iranian military commander declared that Israel’s destruction was “nonnegotiable.”
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