Iran stands ready to counter any threat with quality defensive arms: Hatami

“Timely response requires the power that today the Islamic Republic possesses all the elements of power and necessary will to respond to any aggressor, and will counter any threat at any level with quality defensive weapons,” the minister said on Thursday.

Hatami said that Iran’s military equipment have been designed and produced in accordance with required domestic standards.  

Hatami described Iran’s recent missile attack on a US military airbase in Iraq, which was carried out in retaliation for the assassination of top Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, as a measure meant to meet public demands.

“The hard slap in the face from the (Iranian) Armed Forces in targeting the Americans’ base was given at the highest level of standards in terms of the timing, quality and accuracy of the missiles in pin-point targeting,” the minister said, adding, the effect of this slap “will remain in history.”

Ayatollah Khamenei: Iran’s retaliation against US only ‘a slap’Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has said Iran’s early morning retaliation against US assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani was just “a slap”.

General Soleimani was martyred in a US drone strike ordered by US President Donald Trump in January 3. He was visiting Iraq at the invitation of the Baghdad government when the US carried out the targeted strike, which also killed the Iranian general’s Iraqi anti-terror comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others.

The Islamic Republic has denounced the assassinations as “an act of state terrorism.” In retaliation, the IRGC fired volleys of ballistic missiles on January 8 at two US air bases in the western and northern Iraq.

Despite the US denial of casualties or extensive damage at the site, reports and satellite images revealed what US media described as “extensive” damage at the base.

However, the United States military later confirmed that 11 of its troops were wounded in the Iranian retaliatory missile attack.

Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran’s missile strike on the US base in Iraq was just “a slap.”