Basij Commander Reiterates Arming West Bank

Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi lauded the Palestinian resistance movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for their recent victory in the Gaza war against Israel, and pledged again that Iran would arm resistance groups in the West Bank.
“Their arming will be done,” Naqdi said on Wednesday, adding, “Everything will be done in their proper times.”

Also in August, General Naqdi announced that arming the Palestinian resistance groups in the West Bank has already started.

“Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Naqdi told FNA on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of a forum of Basiji university professors in Tehran at the time.

He underlined that arming the West Bank would lead to the annihilation of the Zionist regime.

Stressing the need for Israel to return the Palestinian lands to their real owners, Naqdi said, “The Zionists should know that the next war won’t be confined to the present borders and the Mujahedeen will push them back.”

He also revealed that many of the equipment and possibilities used by the Palestinians in their recent defense against Israel were the products of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and added that Tehran has also trained them on how to use such technologies to defend themselves.

Senior Iranian military officials warned in August that they would accelerate arming the Palestinians in the West Bank in response to the recent aggression made by an Israeli spy drone which was downed before it could reach Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in Central Iran.

“We will accelerate arming the West Bank and we think that we are entitled to give any response (to the recent aggression) which we deem appropriate,” Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, elaborating on the IRGC’s possible response to Israel’s recent aggression against Iran.

“The Armed Forces, including the IRGC and the Army, are fully prepared to trace and intercept (hostile flying objects) and if such moves are repeated, the aggressors will receive our crushing response,” he warned.

The IRGC Aerospace Force shot down an Israeli spy drone near Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in the Central parts of Iran in August.

“A pilotless Israeli spy plane was shot down after it was traced and intercepted by the IRGC Aerospace Force,” a statement by the IRGC’s Public Relations Department announced.

According to the statement, the Israeli pilotless aircraft was a radar-evading, stealth drone with the mission to spy on Iran’s enrichment activities by flying over Natanz nuclear enrichment plant.

The IRGC also pointed out in its statement that the Israeli hostile aircraft has been targeted by a surface-to-air missile.

“This mischievous attempt once again made the adventurous nature of the Zionist regime more evident and added another black page to the dark record of this fake and warmongering regime, which is full of crimes and wickedness,” the statement added.

The IRGC further warned that it “reserves the right of response and retaliation for itself”.

Iranian officials had also earlier underscored the necessity for arming the Palestinians in the West Bank, saying that the move would lead to Israel’s collapse.

“The continued war in Gaza will accelerate arming the West Bank and annihilation of the occupiers,” Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri said in Tehran in August.

“The holy Quds occupiers’ fear from arming the people and the resistance movement in the West Bank shows how deeply Tel Aviv is vulnerable to the start of a new phase of (Palestinians’) fight and resistance,” he added.

Jazzayeri said during the past decade and after the Zionist regime’s defeats in the 33-day, 8-day and 22-day wars in Lebanon and Gaza and the recent war against the Palestinians, the world public opinion has become aware of this bitter reality that the usurper Israeli regime is a cancerous tumor.