A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says Iran will continue the path towards attaining self-sufficiency and becoming more powerful, stressing the country will give a harsh response to any adventurism “at any level and by any regime or group” which will make them regret.
“Today, some countries that went to [ask for the support of] the Zionist regime (Israel) after they were disappointed by the United States, and think that their security will be guaranteed by this regime are completely wrong. Israel is not even capable of maintaining its own security,” Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said in a Monday meeting with military attaches of foreign countries in Tehran.
“Therefore, if governments and nations have the will, they can end four decades of insecurity and widespread wars in the region through [promotion of ] local, internal and regional security,” he added.
Iran has written to the United Nations Security Council over a sharp increase in Israeli threats against the country, warning against any “miscalculation” or “military adventurism” on the part of the regime against the Islamic Republic, including its nuclear program.
In a letter submitter to the current president of the Security Council on Wednesday, Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht-Ravanchi warned that the frequency and severity of the regime’s provocative and adventurous threats had steadily increased over the past months and reached an alarming level.
Pointing to four decades of military and civil wars, sanctions and intimidation in the West Asian region, Hajizadeh said the US supported former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his eight-year imposed war on Iran (1980-88), which killed more than 230,000 Iranian people.
"For more than four decades, the Islamic Iran resisted and stood against all excessive demands of the US and arrogant allies of the White House,” he added.
In the Iraqi imposed war, Iran managed to stand up to the Saddam regime, which was backed by more than 30 countries, the top IRGC commander said.
He noted that the US also waged two wars in Iraq in 1991 and 2003 and attacked Afghanistan in 2001 but “left the country after 20 years of attempting to cause civil war and chaos.”
Washington also created Takfiri groups, including Daesh, which caused insecurity in Syria and Iraq, the commander said, adding that the war on Yemen and long-running genocide are still underway with the direct support of the United States and some European countries.
Hajizadeh said the US economic sanctions against Iran have also hindered the delivery of medicine to patients with rare diseases in the country.
Pointing to the assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander by the United States in 2020, the IRGC commander said Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani was the “hero” of establishing peace in the region because he fought against the groups, particularly Daesh, that oppose security of countries.
"In fact, if there were not for General Soleimani's efforts and fights, we would witness both the domination of terrorists over the region and the export of these terrorist groups to Europe and other regional countries on a large scale," he emphasized.
He said the current security and peace in Europe are the result of efforts by General Soleimani and his companions but the US unfairly assassinated him.
Hajizadeh added, "The US is in decline and the era of unipolarity in the world has come to an end. This is an undeniable reality that the US cannot stand against Iran, China, Russia and independent countries and is collapsing from the inside.”
On January 3, 2020, the US military conducted an air operation on the order of former US president Donald Trump to assassinate General Soleimani. The attack near Baghdad International Airport killed the popular anti-terror commander and his companions, including Deputy Commander of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Iranian officials have on several occasions vowed to avenge the assassination of the two top commanders, as well as the killing of its top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
As part of its retaliation, Iran launched a volley of ballistic missiles at the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq’s western province of Anbar on January 8, 2020, as a result of which 110 US troops were diagnosed with “traumatic brain injuries.”
Iranian Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on Monday underlined the need for the most serious prosecution of the perpetrators of the assassination of General Soleimani and a number of Iranian scientists.
“We will not allow the blood of these innocent people to be wasted,” Mohseni-Ejei said, blaming the US and the Israeli regime for the terrorist crimes.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Hajizadeh said the Iranian nation has successfully withstood sanctions and the maximum pressure policy pursued by the US and its stooges, and achieved a victory.
“We believe that regional countries are able to establish peace, security and friendship in the region through [promoting] local security and without foreign interference,” he added.
The IRGC commander emphasized that Iranian Armed Forces have focused their efforts on boosting their defense and security power based on the country’s defense doctrine with the purpose of protecting national interests.
The promotion of security and defense cooperation with friendly countries and the resistance front would be possible through partnership with all Muslim countries, he noted.