Army Commanders: Missiles, negotiation ‘two wings of foreign policy’

Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari, Army Navy Commander-in-Chief was the first general to speak to reporters during a funeral ceremony on Sunday in Tehran, with former defense minister Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, and former IRGC general during Imposed War and current Expediency Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei also attending.

Sayyari told the reporters on the sidelines of the ceremony that the west negotiated with Iran since Iran was strong and if it had failed to demonstrate its strength in international community, great hegemonic powers would have subjugated the country; “currently, the Islamic Republic of Iran is a great power in the Middle East, but our power would not seek adventurism in the region, but would serve defending our borders and territorial integrity; submarines and missiles would only serve the sublime objective which is to deter hostile enemies from invading our borders. This is a reality we seek as seriously as possible,” he told the press.

Still in a related subject, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi touched a different aspect of the story, which targeted domestic critics of Iran’s missile program and test-firing; “anybody who opposes country’s defensive capabilities, plays with the security and the existence of the country; defensive strength is not a light matter which could be subject to whims and laxity of its critics; in a time of tumultuous situation in the region with existential threats present, bolstering defensive capability and missile program are essential to country’s defensive machine,” he told reporters.

Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri for his part responded to a question of why the US officials obsessed with Iran’s missile program; “the US is concerned with Iran’s ever-growing power and influence in the region; they had been working to systematically reduce and restrict our capabilities in advancing their own agenda in the region, seeking pretexts to question the whole system, sometimes through nuclear issue and other times through human rights issues,” he emphasized.

Still in a briefer comments, former IRGC commander Mohsen Rezaei also reiterated Leader’s famous lines that missiles along with negotiation should comprise Iran’s foreign policy; “neither of these two should be excluded from a strong and at the same time effective foreign policy,” he added.