Deputy Chief Commander: Iran’s Defense Capabilities Not Negotiable

Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri underlined Iran’s military prowess, and said that the Islamic Republic will never accept to negotiate over its defense capabilities with the world powers.

“Iran’s defense affairs will never be a topic of negotiation and we will never allow outside interference” in our military affairs, Brigadier General Jazzayeri told FNA on Saturday, reacting to some recent threats and excessive demands of the arrogant powers.

He noted that the Iranian Armed Forces will wholeheartedly defend the country and its defense power.

The deputy top commander pointed to Iran’s defense capabilities, and reiterated that “Iran enjoys such a vast defensive power that it can confront (and defeat) any enemy even with an unparalleled level of power”.

Brigadier General Jazzayeri said the US still continues to wrongly believe that it can intimidate Iran into compliance. “But the Islamic Republic will give remorsing response to the enemies and ill-wishers, if necessary.

In relevant remarks on Wednesday, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan lashed out at the US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter for his recent remarks against Iran, saying the country’s Armed Forces are fully prepared to give a crushing response to any aggressor.

Brigadier General Dehqan’s remarks came in reaction to a statement by Carter who said in an interview with NBC’s Today Show on Tuesday that “the military option will certainly remain on the table if Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) fail to strike a final agreement”.

“Such remarks that are always being repeated by some US officials are passive and worthless,” Brigadier General Dehqan said.

He said the US Defense Secretary seems to be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and said, “If Ashton Carter had remembered the past and the recent defeats of the US in the region and the world, he would have refrained from making such empty remarks.”

The Iranian Defense Minister underlined that Iran is always and under all types of conditions ready to confront any hostile threat posed by aggressors and the country “will give its decisive response in the battlefield”.

“Such statements by US officials, specially at a time when the Islamic Republic is engaged in sensitive and complicated nuclear talks to get rid of baseless charges leveled against it, are a sort of poisoning the logical atmosphere of the nuclear talks,” Brigadier General Dehqan added.

“Such remarks confirm Iran’s distrust in the US and will surely not influence Iran’s reasonable, rational and fair stances concerning the nuclear issue,” he added.