News - Middle East: The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran’s recent retaliation against Israel exhibited only a small fraction of the country’s power.

"The potential defeat of the Zionist regime is very close to becoming a reality," Major General Hossein Salami said in northeastern city of Mashhad on Friday. 

Operation True Promise II, he said, not only demonstrated a "portion" of the overwhelming power of Iranian missiles but also proved that Iran supports resistance even in difficult conditions.

Iran's retaliation came in response to Israel's assassinations of Hamas’s chief Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah’s leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan.

“In the course of Operation True Promise II, we even attacked the Zionists’ base at Netzarim in the heart of Gaza… What matters is that all these territories are Muslim lands even if they might have been besieged by belligerent powers, and recognized by certain mercenary states,” Salami said.

He described Israel as another state of the United States that is serving Washington’s critical interests in West Asia.

Noting that 98% of the regime’s economy is seaborne, Salami said attacks on Israeli ports and instability of the Mediterranean Sea would result in the collapse of the regime.

“Records say America's support for the survival of its vassal regimes has always been belated and insufficient. History has proven this fact. The fact today is that the Israeli military is a drained force. Its officials are depressed, its economy is in tatters and the US is managing everything.

"On the other hand, Islamic Iran is invincible and no one can defeat it,” Salami said.

The enemies, Salami added, have utilized all capabilities at their disposal, while Iran has employed only a minimal amount of its capacities.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Salami pointed to the U.S. presidential election, saying the results showed that the resistance in Gaza is "even capable of changing a warmongering American administration."

He said as U.S. Democrats fully supported the Israeli genocide war in Gaza, American voters decided not to cast their ballots for those who "armed the Zionists' killing machine."

Now the only change before the new U.S. statesmen is to scale down aid to Israel, Salami said, adding Washington knows that the expansion of war will only further harm its credibility, power and interests.

Press TV