IRGC Commander Underlines Iran’s Tough Stance against US Visit to Military Sites

“The response is clear. We will not give them such a permission,” General Hajizadeh told reporters in Tehran on Monday when asked about media reports that US President Donald Trump was calling for inspections of Iran’s military sites.

He, meantime, underscored Iran’s high missile power, and said a little part of this power was displayed in the country’s recent missile strikes against the ISIL in Syria.

“Both the Zionists and the reactionary regional regimes understood that we have certain redlines and will resist to safeguard the revolution and will not withdraw,” General Hajizadeh said.

In relevant remarks in July, Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council (EC) Mohsen Rezayee underscored the country’s high missile power, and said Tehran will further enhance its defensive military program.

“Iran’s military power is growing and progressing every day considering the precision-power, quality and the standards that we should witness in a missile,” Rezayee, also former top IRGC commander, said.

“Iran never stops its military progress and doesn’t take order from anyone. We don’t fear any threats and Iran’s goal is establishment of full security for the people,” he added.

Also last month, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani stressed that the country has increased its deterrence and defense power by developing different state-of-the-art missiles.

“Iran’s indigenized missile power has been developing for years based on the country’s need to create a deterrence power,” Shamkhani told reporters in the Northeastern city of Mashhad.

Noting that Iran has reinvigorated the precision-striking power, range and destruction power of its missile throughout years, he said, “Today, it (the missile program) is considered as one of the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power.”

Also, in June, Chief of Staff of Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri underlined his country’s high missile power one day after the IRGC launched missile strikes against the ISIL bases 700km away in Syria.

“Iran is among the world’s big powers in the missile field,” General Baqeri said, addressing a meeting in Tehran on June 19.

He stressed the arrogant powers’ weakness in confrontation with Iran, and said, “They don’t have the capability to engage in clashes with us for now and of course, we don’t intend to involve in clashes with them but we are in permanent rivalry with them in different fields, including the missile sector.”

The IRGC launched 6 missile strikes at ISIL centers in Syria’s Deir Ezzur in retaliation for the June 7 twin terrorist attacks in Tehran, it said in a statement issued on June 18, adding that the mid-range ballistic missiles were fired from bases in Western Iran and flew through Iraq’s airspace before hitting the targets in Syria.