Iran Army would not negotiate with, trust enemies

Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri who was addressing the 22nd IRGC High Command Session on Saturday, said that the enemy had been working to extenuate the deviations from the Revolutionary ideals to join the international community in line with covert and overt attempts to find ways of infiltration; “being and remaining Revolutionary would entail perseverance and remaining strong in the faith of the difficulties, as the Leader would recommend.”

Bagheri believed that the enemies had been stopped behind Iran’s borders thanks to military might Iran had displayed in Iraq and Syria, thus channeling their efforts to other venues than direct confrontation on the ground; “this very thing provided the Islamic Republic with its effective deterrence; however, the enemies have sought diverse other ways to subdue us without sending boots to the frontlines,” he told the meeting.

“The dominant modes of instilling laxity in the minds of the young cohort and the public by the enemies have been to cast doubt on the fact that the Revolution would not continue interminably and they pose questions as ‘has the Revolution ended?’ This is the soft war or cultural invasion the Leader once had delineated as important for possible cultural confrontation with the west,” Bagheri emphasized. “Enemies would save face of purportedly friendly gestures, but they will remain enemies as ever; however, some measures would provide us opportunities to prepare for confrontation; better intelligence and closely watching their movements.”

Maj. Gen. Bagheri also believed that the ‘greater jihad’ was abandoning all doubts against enemies; “the IRGC is such a force and thus has had the most effective role in deterrence, security, and keeping the Revolutionary culture pure; the IRGC would not trust the enemy; the JCPOA was an example where we found that even in a single case where we trust them, they defy our rights and were not to be trusted,” he told the meeting.

“Part of the ‘greater jihad’ relates to IRGC’s conduct inside; it has been a pioneer of Resistance Economy and has been pioneering also projects across the country to reach out to underrepresented and underdeveloped rural regions to defeat poverty; the IRGC is in the frontline of the defenders of the national security, thus it has recruited indiscriminately among Sunni citizens as well,’ Bagheri detailed.

“We have been doing well in strengthening our missile power in recent years; however, we still need more serious measures to bolster further our mobilization capabilities,” he concluded.