The most memorable quotes from new IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami

• “We are planning to break America, Israel, and their partners and allies. Our ground forces should cleanse the planet from the filth of their existence,” Salami said during a speech aired on Iranian TV in February.

• “We will break our enemy. We have decided to do so. We have a plan. We are organized and motivated. We have faith. We have martyrdom. We have Jihad,” Salami said during the speech.

• “The Saud regime should know that it will not last. I know what dreams of horror they have every night. Their lips have become dry [out of fear]. Every day that passes, they are grateful for having lived to see another day. They await death. The same is true of those who are greater than them. America, too, is distressed today. It does not have the appearance of a world power at all. America, too, has been defeated. The Zionist regime is struggling to survive by using psychological warfare. Our enemies have despaired. They are helpless, and you advance,” Salami said during the speech.

• “We shall never lay down our weapons. We are holding the banner. We have taken an oath. This is who we are. We were not created for this world. We were chosen to wage Jihad,” Salami said during the speech.

• “We shall fight them [our enemies] on the global level, not just in one spot. Our war is not a local war. We have plans to defeat the world powers,” Salami said during the speech.

• “The Islamic Republic’s missile power is unstoppable and uncontrollable, and if the Europeans try to conspire to take away our missile power, we will be forced to take a strategic leap,” he said on state TV in February.

• “Our strategy is to wipe Israel off the world’s political geography and Israel seems to be approaching this reality by its evil actions,” he said according to Fars News.

• “Iran’s enemies are not seeking military confrontation,” he said. “They want to pressure our country by economic isolation ... Resistance is the only way to confront these enemies, not diplomacy,” he said according to Fars News.

• “Today, more than ever, there is fertile ground – with the grace of God – for the annihilation, the wiping out, and the collapse of the Zionist regime,” he said in a 2016 speech.