Why does Iran threaten Israel if the US "makes a mistake"?

From Iran's FARS News Agency:

A senior member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission and former Islamic Revolution Guards Corps official warned that the slightest aggression by Washington against Iran will be responded by razing to the ground the US military base in Bahrain.

"The US army's fifth fleet has occupied a part of Bahrain, and the enemy's farthest military base is in the Indian Ocean but these points are all within the range of Iran's missile systems and they will be razed to the ground if the enemy makes a mistake," Mojtaba Zonour, a former advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader's Representative at the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said on Saturday evening.

Stressing that Tehran has prepared its forces for asymmetric war and attained great achievements in the missile field, he said if the enemy fires a missile against Iran, the country will immediately retaliate it with firing a missile at Tel Aviv.

"And only 7 minutes is needed for the Iranian missile to hit Tel Aviv," Zonour said.

His remarks came after US officials repeated threats to Iran in the last few days.

Yesterday, Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh played down the recent allegations by the US officials against Iran's defense program, but meantime warned Washington to avoid hostile action or wait for a harsh response.

"If the enemy makes a mistake our roaring missiles will hit their targets," General Hajizadeh told reporters on the sidelines of massive military drills dubbed 'Modafe'an Harim-e Aseman Velayat' (Defenders of the Velayat Skies) in Semnan province in Northern Iran on Saturday.

No one seems to ask why Iran would attack Israel if they are responding to perceived US actions.

Saudi Arabia is also an ally of the US, and they aren't threatening to hit their much closer neighbor in the event of the US doing something they don't like.

The reason that they choose to threaten Israel is because the West is worried that Israel would fight back and it would escalate into a major conflict rather than a regional one. Iran knows that the West, especially Europe, is frightened of war, so the threat against Israel is meant to be heard not so much by the White House or Israel, but by Europe to beg the US to keep on Iran's good side.

There is also a subtle threat of terrorism here. When it mentions "asymmetric war" that is not a war of missiles against missiles - it is a threat of terrorism, via Hezbollah.

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