IRANIAN COMMANDER: ISRAEL WILL BE GONE IN 10 YEARS

A senior Iranian military commander predicted on Monday that the Palestinian Arabs would “get rid of Israel” in the next 10 years.

Speaking to students near Tehran and quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said the Palestinian territories will be “freed from Israel's occupation” within a decade, expressing hope that the notions, thoughts and ideology that led to Iran's Islamic Revolution would help the Arabs get rid of Israel.

Naqdi further claimed that the Islamic Revolution helped Iran get rid of the United States over 35 years ago, rescued the country from Saddam Hussein's aggression and helped the Lebanese to get rid of the Americans as well.

"Considering these developments, liberation of Palestine by the Islamic Revolution is not unlikely at all," he claimed, according to Fars.

Naqdi’s comments follow ones he made earlier this month when he predicted that the United States will collapse in less than 20 years and that President-elect Donald Trump will speed up the process.

"According to the analysis made by the behind-the-stage and shadow decision-makers of the establishment in the U.S., the United States will collapse in 2035 and I think that it is an optimistic analysis as this will take place much earlier," he told Fars.

Referring to Trump, Naqdi added, "The person that has ascended to power displays the reality of the U.S."

The comments are another example of the anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric that is constantly spoken by Iranian officials.

Chief among them is Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has referred to Israel as a “cancer” and in the past threatened to "annihilate" the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa.

In March, the Supreme Leader ruled out his country having ties with the United States or “the Zionist regime” – that is, Israel – claiming he had proof that the United States was planning a coup in Iran.

In May, a senior Iranian military commander threatened Israel and claimed that his country can destroy the Jewish state “in less than eight minutes”.

Earlier this month, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, claimed Israel is the biggest threat to humanity, world peace and international security.

TRUMP’S VICTORY COULD BE GOOD NEWS FOR PERSECUTED MIDDLE EAST CHRISTIANS

Middle East Christians in America and beyond appear to be behind the new president due to his pro-Russian, anti-Saudi leanings

Donald Trump, the next president of the United States of America – I guess those are words few of us ever expected to hear, along with ‘Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition’ and ‘Leicester City, Premier League Champions’,

I went to bed early assuming that Clinton had it in the bag, and that overall this was probably the lesser of two evils. She’s awful, but I broadly agreed with PJ O’Rourke on this one.

Not that I made any endorsement; it slightly baffles me how many Brits in particular seem to forget that Americans aren’t voting for the president of the world, but their own leader, and should do what they feel is right for their nation, not what we tell them to.

Except that, of course, American foreign policy affects everyone on earth. I’d be curious to see how many of the large numbers of Middle East Christians who now live in America (many Egyptian Copts but also Iraqis, Lebanese and Palestinians) voted for Trump. Anecdotally they seem to be overwhelmingly pro-Trump, viewing his pro-Russian, anti-Saudi leanings as being good news for them. He almost certainly can’t be worse than either Bush or Obama as far as they are concerned, both of whom have been catastrophic for persecuted Christians.

Obama’s administration in particular has been extremely soft, almost sympathetic, to some dreadful Islamist groups in the Middle East, naively describing the Islamic Brotherhood as ‘largely secular’.

Not surprisingly, many Middle East Christians think Obama has Muslim sympathies and that Trump – who certainly doesn’t – could be good for them.

Trump’s warmth towards Putin will be of far more concern to Christians in strongly Catholic Poland and Lithuania, but then maybe this is an opportunity for Europeans. As I’ve argued before, as grateful as I am for America saving us from both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, it has also infantilised our continent.

Trump may be a chance for European countries to start growing up and defending ourselves; David Goodhart has suggested that British military commitment to north-east Europe could be a bargaining chip when our Brexit negotiations begin. I certainly don’t want conflict with Russia, and sympathise with some of their gripes against the west (such as the ransacking of their economy under Yeltsin) but we should also be increasing our military spending and presence in Poland and the Baltic.

Russia is a particular concern for me as a conservative; many traditionalists see Putinism as a bulwark against western decadence and their suspicion that Marxism didn’t actually lose in 1989, but reaction stripped of its moderating influences (in Russia’s case, the rule of law) is a dangerous force that can only harm European conservatism.

The upside of a change in president is that it brings the chance of peace in Syria closer, although this was probably likely whoever took over, as a new leader would find it easier to do the inevitably squalid deal that will leave Assad in power. For that reason many persecuted Christians may be celebrating the unlikely victory of the three-times married New York property tycoon.