Iranian Commander: Strategic Confrontation between Iran, US Intensifying

“We are facing different types of threats and the possibility of action by the enemy, meaning that there is a strategic confrontation between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US,” General Rashid said, addressing an exhibition of the Civil Defense Organization’s achievements and capabilities in Tehran on Tuesday.

He said that the level of strategic confrontation between Iran and the US has enhanced, specially in the current decade, along with the developments in the past few years, including the Islamic Awakening and emergence of the suspicious Takfiri groups which, he said, have been created to confront the Islamic Revolution.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is facing growing threats and numerous opportunities in this situation,” General Rashid underlined.

In relevant remarks in June, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei rapped the US officials for their continued threats and excessive demands from Iran even after the July nuclear deal, and said Tehran is standing firm against Washington’s plots in West Asia.

“The Americans, including the administration, the Congress and the presidential candidates, continue raising excessive demands and threats, and their positions and threats in the current period of time is like the period before the (nuclear) agreement and we shouldn’t keep silent against this arrogance,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing the Iranian legislators.

He warned of the US and its allies’ plots against the region, and said, “The enemy has drawn plans for the important and sensitive region of West Asia and is attempting to foil the Islamic Republic’s policies which are preventing the implementation of its plots.”

Ayatollah Khamenei said that the presence of a big Muslim population and existence of giant oil resources, waterways and the Zionist regime in the region make the region important to the enemies, and said, “Their plot against the region is the same New and Great Middle-East plan that they had several years ago.”

He underlined failure of the US plots in the region, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine due to the resistance shown by the Islamic Republic, and said, “We should stand against these hegemonic policies and unveil the true face of the arrogant powers.”

Also in the same month, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the Iranians to maintain their “revolutionary spirit” by means of which they drove out the enemies, including the US, out of Iran 38 years ago.

“We have many small and big enemies, but foremost among them are America and this very evil Britain,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing more than one million mourners in Southern Tehran to mark the 27th anniversary of the demise of Imam Khomeini who ended a pro-Western monarchy in Iran in 1979.

Iran’s Supreme Leader reiterated that any individual or current which is working for Islam, if they trust the US, they will be slapped in the face.

Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the history of US hostility against Iran, including its support for Saddam Hussein in the 1980-1988 war against Iran, US downing of an Iranian passenger plane, its attack on Iranian oil platforms and a CIA coup in Iran.

“The enmity with Iran stems from its revolutionary spirit; the pressures which are being exerted are due to this revolutionary (spirit) because the enemies are afraid of it,” the Supreme Leader added.