Iran celebrates National Army Day with nationwide military parades

Iran celebrates its National Army Day with large-scale military parades across the country, showcasing its latest achievements in the defense sector.

Units of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army’s Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base took part in the nationwide parades on Thursday.

In Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani and top military commanders of the Army and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) attended the parade near the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic.

During the parade, Iranian Armed Forces displayed their new defense achievements, advanced military equipment and hardware.

This year’s Army Day celebrations featured the aerial performance of domestically-built Kowsar and Saeqeh bombers.

Moreover, MiG-29, F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat warplanes also took part in the parade. The maneuvers also saw KC-747 and KC-707 aerial refueling tankers fly from bases situated in the cities of Tabriz, Tehran, Hamedan and Isfahan.

Missiles, submarines, armored vehicles, radars and electronic warfare systems were also put on display.

During the parade in the south, the Navy’s warships, vessels and destroyers also sailed in the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

Rouhani: Insulting IRGC is insult to entire nation

Speaking at the ceremony, President Rouhani once again condemned the highly American hostile policies against the Iranian nation, the latest of which saw Washington designate an important section of Iran’s Armed Forces -- the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) – as a “foreign terrorist organization,” in an unprecedented move that runs counter to international regulations.

The Iranian president described the designation as “abhorrent,” emphasizing that “insulting the IRGC is an insult to all (Iranian) Armed Forces, and an insult to the great Iranian nation.”

In the face of America’s blacklisting, “All people stood in unison by the IRGC and will continue to stand by it because the IRGC has always been and will remain at the nation’s side.”

He also said Iran’s Armed Forces do not pose any threat against regional nations and their national interests, but they “stand against invaders.”

The president further warned that the Zionist regime as well as the US and other big powers do not favor stability, security, integrity and brotherhood in the region, and that is why they militarily intervene in its countries, he added.

“The region’s nations have lived alongside each other for centuries and never had a problem... If there is a problem, it is caused by others,” Rouhani said, calling on regional nations to stand united in the face of aggressors.

The crimes being committed by the US military in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other countries has brought nothing other than misery, agony and carnage to the region, Rouhani said.

He said it was the power of regional nations and Iran’s Armed Forces – including the IRGC – that foiled America’s ominous plot for the region by defeating its terrorist proxies there.

The Iranian chief executive noted that the US is angry with Iran’s Armed Forces, Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, Iraq’s Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters and Yemen’s Popular Committees due to their resistance against American conspiracies.

“The Americans and their stooges in the region and the Zionist regime could not imagine that regional nations with the help of Iran, its Armed Forces and the IRGC could annihilate all their proxies, i.e. terrorists, in the Middle East,” he said.

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