Rezaei Says Israel Is Threatening Türkiye and Insulting Erdoğan

The comments were made in a televised interview with Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen on Wednesday, Nov. 11, the same conversation in which Rezaei warned that Iran would strike distant U.S. bases if it were attacked again.

He said the “resistance front” had helped preserve Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and claimed that, without it, Israel would have dominated those countries.

“Even now, Israel is also threatening Türkiye, and although Türkiye is a major country, it is insulting and threatening Mr. Erdoğan,” according to a Hamshahri transcript of the interview.

What Rezaei Claimed

“What prevented Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq from falling under Israeli occupation? The resistance front and Iran,” he said. The sacrifices made by Iran and the resistance front “to preserve the Islamic countries of the region are unprecedented in history,” he added.

Those statements are political claims. They do not establish that Israel had been on the verge of occupying those states, which remain sovereign countries.

He also said that, without the resistance front, the United States would have achieved all of its aims in the region and left West Asian countries under American and Israeli occupation. That, too, is his account.

A Public Feud With Israel

Rezaei did not name a specific Israeli official. His comments land amid unusually sharp public exchanges between Ankara and Jerusalem.

In October, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted photographs of Erdoğan with the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan with Hamas’s Khalil al-Hayya, alongside an image of the gates of Hell. Daily Sabah, citing Anadolu Agency, reported that Katz wrote al-Hayya would be “next” to be “sent to hell” and accused Erdoğan of rolling out the red carpet for “murderers.”

Türkiye’s communications director, Burhanettin Duran, called the post “outrageous” and said it targeted the president and the country. In an official statement, he said “threats, provocations and smear campaigns” by the Israeli government would not change Ankara’s position, and he accused Katz of making “explicit death threats” against people involved in ceasefire talks.

Erdoğan’s Latest Rebuke

The dispute has continued this week. Speaking at the opening of the COP31 summit in Antalya on Wednesday, Erdoğan said Türkiye wanted to send containers to Gaza but that “permission is not being given.” Aid groups have blamed Israeli restrictions on shelter materials; Israel has said it restricts items that could serve military purposes.

Rezaei, who has been secretary of the Supreme National Security Council since August, also named an end to the wider war, “especially in Lebanon,” as one of Iran’s core conditions.