In case of an attack on the Iranian nuclear sites, "Iran would bung Israel into the trash bin of history," a general of the Iranian revolutionary guards (IRGC) said Monday.

"It is actually one of our biggest wishes that the Zionists regime [Israel] would make such a move," Amir Ali-Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC aerospace department, told Fars news agency.

Open gallery view A reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran on August 21, 2010. Credit: AP

"In that case we would do what we wanted to do for quite a while; bunging the enemy of Islam and Muslims [Israel] into the trash bin of history," he said.

There has been mounting speculation that Israel would strike Iran's nuclear facilities if Iran continues to defy international demands that it allay western concerns over it nuclear activities.

Iranian military officials have several times warned Israel would regret such preemptive strikes and that Iran would in retaliation make use of its Shahab-3 missiles which could strike any part of the country.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a report earlier this month that claimed that there was a high probability that Iran's nuclear program has military aspects, prompting Israel and the U.S. to urge the international community to toughen economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.