Iran Armed Forces can detect, repel any threat: Lawmaker

An Iranian lawmaker says the country’s armed forces are capable of detecting and repelling any threat posed by the West against the Islamic Republic.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces are constantly monitoring threats and are capable of countering any anti-Iran measure,” member of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Abbas-Ali Mansouri-Arani said on Sunday.

Referring to a recent report by the daily Independent about the British government’s plan to increase its warplanes in the Persian Gulf, the lawmaker dismissed the report as part of the West’s “psychological war” against Iran.

He emphasized that Tehran attaches no importance to number of European and American warplanes in the region.

The Independent reported on Saturday that Britain may deploy its Typhoon fighter jets in the Persian Gulf at the Al Dhafra airbase south of the United Arab Emirate’s capital, Abu Dhabi, where American and French troops are already present.

The Iranian lawmaker stated that there have been similar military deployments against Iran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution (in early 1979), but the country’s military forces are powerfully monitoring all such movements and no place in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean is inaccessible to Iran’s intelligence forces.

Iran’s Navy has been multiplying its presence in the international waters since last year.

Iran Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on October 28 that the Iranian naval forces are capable of defending the country’s interests and resources in the Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman, and Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has repeatedly clarified that its military might is merely based on the nation’s defense doctrine of deterrence and poses no threat to other countries.