DM: Transregional Powers Aware of Iran’s Military Might

Iranian Defense Minister Ali Hatami blasted the presence of foreign forces in the region, and said that transregional powers are fully aware of the military strength of the Islamic Republic.

Brigadier General Amir Hatami made the remarks in a commemoration ceremony of Lt. General Soleimani on Saturday.

He went on to say that the enemies of the Islamic Republic are struggling to undermine Iran in the geopolitical arena.

“A number of regional countries pursue their interest based on the policies of transregional powers and that is why they want to reduce the presence of the Islamic Republic in the region,” the Iranian Defense Minister said.

Brigadier General Hatami pointed out that the enemies created terrorist groups in the West Asian region to achieve their goals, however, Iran’s strategic presence prevented their conspiracies.

“The perpetrators of Lieutenant General Soleimani’s assassination must know that the revenge of this martyr will be taken and the great revenge is the withdrawal of the US troops from the region,” he added.

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Former Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Mohsen Rezayee lauded former IRGC Quds Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani for his anti-terrorism efforts, and said expulsion of the US military forces from the region will be Iran’s reprisal for his assassination.

“Of course, our main revenge started with Ayn al-Assad, and our harsh revenge is the struggle to expel the US from the region, so that the regional states will get rid of the terrorists forever,” Rezayee, the secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, said on the sidelines of a ceremony to commemorate the first anniversary of General Soleimani’s martyrdom in the Southeastern province of Kerman.

He praised General Soleimani for his anti-terrorism efforts, saying that under the conditions that no army and country could stand against the ISIL, the Iranian anti-terror General succeeded in suppressing the terrorists.

In relevant remarks on Friday, Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Esmayeel Qaani said that the criminal assassination of General Soleimani might be retaliated inside the US.

Qaani said that the path of Resistance and the Quds Force will never change with the diabolical moves of the US, stressing that the criminals who assassinated General Soleimani might get their fitting response inside their houses.

Speaking at the ceremony on the occasion of the first anniversary of Martyr Soleimani in Tehran, he stressed that the American forces in Iraq are trembling from fear, adding that they have taken unprecedented security measures in the recent days due to the moves of the Iraqi combatants.

Lieutenant General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq on January 3, 2020.

The airstrike also martyred Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces. The two were martyred in an American airstrike that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.

Five Iranian and five Iraqi military men were martyred by the missiles fired by the US drone at Baghdad International Airport.

On January 8 and after the funeral ceremony of General Soleimani, the IRGC Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.

Ein Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels, which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army’s central radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.

The second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of “Martyr Soleimani” reprisal operation.

Iraq said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ein Al-Assad to everyone, including the Iraqi army.

The IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.

Meantime, Iran announced in late June that it had issued arrest warrants for 36 officials of the US and other countries who have been involved in the assassination of the martyred General Soleimani.

“36 individuals who have been involved or ordered the assassination of Hajj Qassem, including the political and military officials of the US and other governments, have been identified and arrest warrants have been issued for them by the judiciary officials and red alerts have also been issued for them via the Interpol,” Prosecutor-General of Tehran Ali Alqasi Mehr said at the time.

He said that the prosecuted individuals are accused of murder and terrorist action, adding that US President Donald Trump stands at the top of the list and will be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends.