IRGC to Stage Military Drills Next Week

‘Payambare Azam’ (The Great Prophet) drills will be held for three days on 12-14 April in Sistan and Baluchistan, south of Kerman, south of South Khorasan and east of Hormozgan, announced Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force Brigadier General Mohmmad Pakpour in a press conference on Sunday morning.

He referred to the objectives of the drill, saying “the first objective is to maintain the units’ combat readiness. The second objective is to demonstrate the military power of the units situated in the region, and the third is to give an identity and security to the region based on localizing security.”

He further added that the Army Aviation, more commonly known as ‘Havaniruz’, will play an effective and significant part during the wargame.

He maintained that IRGC Ground Forces missions are related to either security or defense, adding “our neighboring countries with whom we share borders at northwest, west, southeast and even the northeast of the country, hold no sovereignty at their borders or are unable to control and block them.”

He went on to add that this lack of control has made border crossings for terrorists very easy; “we are neighbors with two countries in northwest of Iran. Turkey has a relative hold on its borders, but the borders in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan are in the control of groups that are not even Iraqi. We are practically sharing borders with terrorist groups down to Sardasht region.”

We have to make a lot of efforts to prevent the intrusion of insecurities from Iraq into our own territories, he added.

“We have sufficient control over the enemy,” he added. “we have no border vacuum in northwest and western parts of the country, and we hold the initiative at these borders.”

He also added nearly 95 percent of IRGC military equipment is at the ready.

He further noted that Saudi Arabia is funding plots to threaten Iran’s security, adding “certain groups at our borders are currently organized and established by the Persian Gulf littoral states, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia.”

We have to be fully prepared and this readiness will thwart these plots against Iran, he added.