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IRGC will take firm, resolute action to defend Iran’s interests: Statement

This picture provided by Tasnim News Agency on July 28, 2020 shows speedboats enlisted with Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps circling around a replica of a US aircraft carrier during large-scale drills off the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says its forces will spare no sacrifice in defending the achievements of the Islamic Revolution as well as the Iranian nation and the Islamic establishment.

In a statement released at the end of large-scale IRGC drills in Iran’s southern waters, codenamed Payambar-e A’zam (The Great Prophet) 14, on Thursday, the public relations department of the IRGC said the elite force will take resolute action to defend the country’s interests and will spare no sacrifice to this end.

The statement hailed that the exercise had achieved its predetermined goals, adding that the exercises "ended successfully with implementation of all [determined] sequences and combined operational drills across the land, sea, air, and space.”

The IRGC also enumerated some of the “elaborate operational drills” carried out during the event, such as unprecedented firing of ballistic missiles from underground launch facilities, destruction of enemy radar facilities, and successful firing of coast-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles that led to destruction of enemy warships.

The maneuvers, which enlisted the IRGC’s Aerospace Division and Navy, spanned the general area of the Hormozgan Province, west of the strategic Hormuz Strait, and the Persian Gulf.

They saw the IRGC staging “all-out and multilayer” strikes against the life-size replica of a Nimitz-class US aircraft carrier. The IRGC’s servicemen began the episode by destroying the mock carrier’s accompaniment with coast-to-sea fire. State television aired footage showing the damage caused to the model vessel following the operational juncture, and the IRGC commandos’ rappelling onto it.

The drills have been monitored by Iran’s first military satellite Nour (Light)-1 that was launched by the Corps into orbit in April. Simultaneously, the satellite relayed a high-resolution vivid image of al-Udeid Air base in Qatar that is reportedly the largest US base in West Asia.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that following the launch of ballistic missiles by the Corps during the drills, al-Udeid and al-Dhafra, another air base in the United Arab Emirates, were temporarily put on “high alert” and the American forces deployed there were asked to stay in bunkers.

Speaking on the sidelines of the drills on Tuesday, the IRGC’s Chief Commander Major General Hossein Salami said that the Islamic Republic would never initiate any offensive against any country but would assumes a fully offensive mode when it comes to tactical and operational performance. By assuming an offensive mode on the operational and tactical level, the Corps will be “turning the tables” on the enemy, General Salami asserted.

IRGC Navy Commander Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri also said on Wednesday that the drills were simulating actual warzone engagement with real enemy forces and were meant to send across a message of warning to those potentially seeking to undermine the country’s security.

The IRGC's Thursday statement also named effective drone attack against the command bridge of the model aircraft carrier and commandeering of enemy vessels during heliborne operations that were accompanied by backup missile firepower as some other measures honed during the exercise.

The drills, it said, carried the message of “compassion, conviviality, peace, and friendship” to the Islamic Republic’s friendly and neighboring countries, while serving to display the Corps’ power and steadfastness as well as being in the service of collective security for the Persian Gulf’s littoral nations, the IRGC's statement added.

The event, though, also bore another message for the Islamic Republic’s enemies, the global arrogant powers, and those casting covetous eyes on the country’s interests, the Corps said. It was meant to assure them of the preparedness, alertness, confrontation-readiness, and steadfastness of the Iranian nation and the Armed Forces defending the Islamic Revolution and the Muslim homeland, the statement noted.

The IRGC finally expressed certainty that the “memorable event” had managed to clearly convey the latter message to the country’s enemies.


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