On Monday, April 18th, President Ebrahim Raisi declared that Iran’s armed forces are ready to respond to the “slightest” possible military moves taken by Israel against the Islamic Republic. This remark comes after last month’s stalling of negotiation talks between Tehran and the US in order to revive the country’s 2015 nuclear deal, as well as the recent naturalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and a handful of Arab states.
During a military parade to mark National Army Day, it is reported by Al Jazeera that the Iranian President warned, “Our message to the Zionist regime is that if you are after normalizing relations with some countries in the region, you must know that not even your smallest movements are hidden from our intelligence, security and armed forces,” in reference to Israel. Furthermore, Raisi said Iran is “closely” watching Israel and claimed its military is a deterrent, where at the parade, they put the Iranian military on display with homegrown weapons and defense systems. Yousef Ghorbani, the commander of Iran’s Army Aviation, confirmed that the country was now fully self-sufficient in producing military parts for its fighter jets and helicopters, which the state used to attain and rely on from international shipments.
Diplomatic relationships between the two states have been tense since the 1979 Revolution, which resulted in Tehran no longer recognizing Israeli sovereignty. Since this point, Iran has supported armed militias in occupied Palestinian territories. Recently, Iran fired missiles into a site in Erbil, the capital of northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, in which the Islamic Republic justified the action by claiming that Israel was using the site– however, the governor of Erbil has denied this. The current President’s threats and hard-line politics resemble former President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s pledge to “exterminate” Israel. Additionally, straining relations further, as Deutsche Welle (DW) reports, Israel says it will not accept Iran as “a nuclear threshold state,” and Tehran has also accused Israel of sabotaging its nuclear program.
It is crucial that the historically strained correspondence between the two nations mustn’t worsen due to recent outbursts; thus, diplomatic dialogue must be attained before peace or mere mutual respect becomes the norm. Direct talks with mediation from both Middle Eastern countries and others involved in the Iran-Israel proxy conflict are efficient next steps in the right direction, as it is time for compromise and positive change to come to fruition.