The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group said Friday his men will not leave Syria even if the whole world tries to force them to do so, adding that only a request from the Syrian government would prompt such a move.

Hassan Nasrallah said Israel had for years hoped for Syrian leader Bashar Assad to fall. Now that such a ambition seems unlikely, he said, Israel has set a new goal — to drive Iran and Hezbollah out of Syria.  Nasrallah also threatened Israelis, saying, “The day of the great war is coming.”

Nasrallah’s comments came during a televised speech he gave to hundreds of supporters who gathered in the village of Maroun el-Ras on Lebanon’s border with Israel to mark Quds Day. The close ally of Iran said Israeli claims that Iran is planning to resume uranium enrichment to wipe out six million Jews in Israel were lies. Iran and its allies don’t want to kill Jews, he claimed. “We do not want to destroy or kill or throw anyone into the sea,” he said. “Get on your planes and boats and go back to the countries you came from.” But “if you insist on the occupation, the day of the great war is coming, the day we will all pray in Jerusalem.”