Iran would "blow up the heart" of Israel if attacked by the Jewish state or the United States, a Revolutionary Guards official was quoted on Friday as saying. "Even if one American or Zionist missile hits our country, before the dust settles, Iranian missiles will blow up the heart of Israel," Mojtaba Zolnour said, according to IRNA news agency.
Zolnour is a deputy representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the elite Guards force. Iranian officials have previously said Tehran would retaliate in the event of an Israeli or U.S attack.
Separately, a senior cleric predicted a new Palestinian uprising, after clashes at the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque two weeks ago increased tension in Jerusalem, state television said. "The Zionists have for the umpteenth time launched an attack on al-Aqsa mosque ... Know that with these crimes that you have now perpetrated the third intifada will take shape," Ahmad Khatami told Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran.
After the sermon, a few hundred people staged an anti-Israeli rally in central Tehran, a witness said. Earlier this year, a senior commander said Iranian missiles could reach Israeli nuclear sites. Israel is believed to be the only nuclear-armed Middle East state. Israel has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to end a dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions, echoing US policy, although Washington is engaged in a drive to resolve the issue through direct talks with Tehran.
The West suspects the Islamic state is covertly seeking to develop nuclear weapons, which Iran denies. At talks in Geneva on October 1, Iran agreed with six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - to give UN experts access to a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant south of Tehran.
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