DHAKA: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief warned a US military attack on Syria would lead to the ‘imminent destruction’ of Israel and would prove a ‘second Vietnam’ for America, according to an Iranian news agency.

Shia Muslim Iran, an arch-enemy of Israel, supports Syrian president Bashar Assad against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels trying to oust him in a two-and-a-half-year-old revolt.

Iran has blamed the rebels for suspected chemical weapons on August 21 that killed hundreds of civilians.

Opposition activists blame Assad’s forces, Washington has agreed and US president Barack Obama made the case for a limited military strike against Syria in response to the chemical attack.

Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said in an interview late on Wednesday with the Tasnim news agency that a US strike on Syria would not help Israel.

‘An attack on Syria will mean the imminent destruction of Israel,’ Jafari said, according to Tasnim, reports The Jerusalem Post.

BDST: 1954 HRS, AUG 29, 2013
RoR/RIS