On Monday, hundreds of thousands of Iranians held nation-wide rallies to mark the 40th anniversary of the fall of the Shah and the triumph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Shiite cleric who led an Islamic Revolution that rattles the West to this day.

Tehran "will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa" to the ground if Washington attacks Iran, the IRNA news agency cited an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander as saying on Monday.

"The United States does not have the courage to shoot a single bullet at us despite all its defensive and military assets. But if they attack us, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground," Yadollah Javani, the Guards' deputy head for political affairs said during a rally celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

The commander's statement comes after earlier in the day the IRNA cited an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesman who stated that Tehran's military forces will "firmly punish" aggressors who attack Iran.

READ MORE: Iranian Revolution at 40: Britain's Secret Support for Khomeini Revealed

"Islamic Iran has reached a level… to protect its borders by effective military capabilities, and firmly punish any aggressor," Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said during a rally celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

The comment comes as, on the same day, a massive nation-wide rally marking the 40th anniversary of the fall of the shah and the triumph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took place.

On 11 February 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei came to power in Iran, replacing Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi's Western-backed government, turning the country into an Islamic Republic. It is not widely acknowledged that the British government played a crucial role in supporting the leader for years before and after the Islamic Revolution.