By Yoav Stern and Barak Ravid,
Israel has decided to send a letter of protest to the United Nations Security Council, after the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Monday that Israel was a "cancerous germ" that would soon be destroyed by the "hands of Hezbollah," Army Radio reported.
Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted by the Fars News Agency as saying: "In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous germ of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah combatants."
The Foreign Ministry has instructed Israel's delegation to the UN to write a missive saying that the comments call for the destruction of Israel and represent severe anti-Semitism and racism, Army Radio reported.  
The letter is also expected to call on the UN to censure Iran over the comments.
Jafari made the comment in a letter to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, to offer condolences after the killing of senior guerrilla commander Imad Mughniyah in a car bomb last week in Damascus.
Iran does not recognize Israel's right to exist, and its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has often predicted the imminent demise of Israel.
Western analysts say the Revolutionary Guards, an ideological wing of Iran's armed forces, has given military support to Hezbollah. Tehran denies this, saying it only provides moral backing to the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group.
"Undoubtedly the martyrdom of this sincere fighter [Imad Mughniyah] will strengthen the determination of all revolutionary and combatant Muslims, particularly his co-combatants in confrontation with the Zionist regime," Jafari added in his letter.
The Guards were set up after the 1979 revolution in Iran to protect Iran's Islamic system. They have land, sea and air units with a separate command structure to the regular military. They have an expanding economic role, including in Iran's oil industry.
Also on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that even after 60 years, Israel still has neither legitimacy nor any role in the Middle East, the ISNA news agency reported.
"The West has tried to impose a fabricated regime on the Middle East but even after 60 years, the Zionist regime (Israel) has neither gained any legitimacy nor played any role in this region," Mottaki was quoted as saying.
Calling United States policies in the Middle East a failure, Mottaki predicted the collapse of Israel.
"The era of imposing policies on other states by military threats is over. The nations in the region will no longer surrender to any threats," Mottaki said.
Hezbollah: Revenge for Mughniyah death will be 'extremely costly'
On Sunday, the Hezbollah head of the southern Lebanon region Sheikh Nabil Kauk said "It won't be long before the conceited Zionists realize that Imad Mughniyah's blood is extremely costly, and it makes history and brings about a new victory."
Kauk, who spoke at a memorial service for the slain terrorist in Mughniyah's home village, Tayr Debba, in south Lebanon, added that Israel was "standing on one leg of fear and trepidation, having become the hostage of its own act of stupidity."
Kauk spoke at a ceremony attended by the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Hezbollah senior officials and representatives from the Amal terrorist group, Fatah and representatives from the Lebanese army.
'No worthy replacement'
Defense Minister Barak also said Sunday that he anticipated Hezbollah would try to retaliate for the assassination, possibly with help from Syria and Iran. But he added that "it will take a long time before a worthy replacement is found to take Mughinyah's place."
Meanwhile, foreign media published details about the attack. The Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai reported that the hit was perpetrated by security personnel of "an Arab state that shares a border with Syria," using American technology.
The report said Mughniyah was killed by a blast from an explosive charge that contained 3,000 metal fragments, as he was passing near the car that carried the bomb.
The report added he was coming back from a meeting with a Palestinian official.
Gulf funding
The funding for the assassination, according to Al-Rai, came from one of the Gulf states. The final decision to carry out the attack came from Jerusalem, the paper claimed. Israel's Channel 2 said the assassination involved interested parties from Lebanon.
According to "informed Israel sources" cited by London's Sunday Times, it was Israel's Mossad spy agency that carried out the car bombing that killed Mughniyah.
The fatal explosion, the paper said, came from an explosive charge that had been planted in the headrest of the car Mughniyah was driving. The sources told the newspaper that Mughniyah had been cooperating with the Syrians in planning a major terrorist attack against Israel, in retaliation for a September 2007 Israeli air strike against a suspected nuclear facility deep inside Syria. 
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