Countdown to Israel’s ‘collapse’ has begun, Iran’s military says ahead of Quds Day

Israel will cease to exist in the near future as the country faces an “unprecedented chain of crises,” Iran’s top military body said on Thursday, ahead of the annual Quds (Jerusalem) Day.

In a statement carried by state media, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, responsible for coordinating between Iran’s conventional army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said that “Islamic resistance” from outside and internal protests are “challenging the nature of the Zionist regime” – the term used by Tehran to refer to Israel – and that “the countdown to the collapse of Zionism has begun.”

“By God’s grace, there will be no such thing as the Zionist regime in the not too distant future.”

The statement came ahead of Quds Day, an annual event that was launched by former supreme leader and founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini. It is held on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which falls on April 14 this year.

Marches on Quds Day traditionally feature demonstrators chanting “death to Israel” and “death to America” and burning the flags of the two countries.

Iran does not recognize its arch-foe Israel and supporting the Palestinian cause has been a cornerstone of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.