DM: Enemy Fearful of Iran’s Defensive Capabilities, Power

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan underlined the readiness of the country’s Armed Forces to confront any possible outside threats, and said the enemy is afraid of Iran’s military prowess and defense capacities.
“The world’s arrogant powers are today scared of Iran’s high defensive capabilities and for the same reason their style of sanctions and threats are changed everyday,” Dehqan said, addressing a ceremony marking the 35th anniversary of the return of the founder of the Islamic Republic, late Imam Khomeini, from exile back in 1979.

He reiterated that Iran’s defensive power is rooted in the significant efforts and endeavors of the country’s experts, and said, “Iran is pursuing a policy of deterrence and our work is based on a defensive policy.”

Earlier in the day, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami said Tehran knows that the US will eventually err and attack Iran, “thus Iran has prepared itself very well and it will recognize no boundary for responding to any possible US attack”.

General Salami underlined Iran’s full preparedness for any possible US attack, and said Washington should take responsibility for the dire consequences of any aggression.

“The US (threat of using the) military option is of no care to us. They can use this option but should take the responsibility for its destructive consequences too,” Salami said in a televised interview with Iran’s state-run TV on Saturday night.

“The US can have different scenarios against Iran, including air, missile and limited ground incursion; all these scenarios have been identified, all possibilities have been studied and we have complete intelligence superiority in all these cases and operational strategies,” he added.

Salami said if the US dares to embark on its military threats against Iran, the Islamic Republic would then “recognize no boundary for its response”.

Salami underlined that Iran is ready for all types of threats, and added, “We have identified those regions which shock the US and we have full dominance over the enemy’s vital interests.”

His remarks came in reaction to the recent statements of US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said in an interview in Geneva late last month that the military option was still on the table “if Iran did not live up to its nuclear commitments under the Geneva deal”.

Also in January, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri downplayed the US and its allies’ war rhetoric against Iran, and said they don’t dare to attack Iran because they have no hope of victory in such a war.

In response to Kerry’s comments, the senior Iranian commander said that the US government knows that the military option against Iran is not practical.

The United States has long stressed that military action is a main option for the White House to deter Iran’s progress in the field of nuclear technology.

Iran has warned that in case of an attack by either the US or Israel, it will target 32 American bases in the Middle-East and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

An estimated 40 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through the waterway.

On November 24, Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over its nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Group 5+1 agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and continue talks with the country to settle all problems between the two sides.

The US Treasury Department in mid December added names of 19 persons and Iranian and foreign companies to the sanction list.

This is while in exchange for Iran’s confidence-building measures, the US agreed to refrain from slapping new sanctions on Iran.

At the time, the Iranian negotiators in Vienna halted nuclear talks with major world powers to return to Tehran for consultations after Washington blacklisted a dozen companies and individuals for evading US sanctions.

The experts meetings continued after US Secretary of State, John Kerry, contacted his Iranian counterpart and tried to appease Tehran.

On Saturday, Supreme Leader’s representative at the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ali Saeedi underlined Iran’s regional influence, and said that the country’s clout has now gone way beyond the nation’s geographical borders.

“Today our borders have stretched and reached the Mediterranean coasts,” Saeedi said.

The IRGC official underlined that Iran should now be careful not to lose these stretched boundaries of power, otherwise the enemy will once again come to stand right behind the country’s borders.

Despite the US-engineered sanctions against Iran, which have been illegally imposed under the pretext that the country’s nuclear energy program includes a military component, Iran’s influence and clout has turned it into a main regional actor.