Iranian armed forces hold nationwide military parades to mark Sacred Defense Week

Iran’s armed forces are holding military parades across the country on the first day of Sacred Defense Week, which marks an eight-year war of aggression on Iran by then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.

In Tehran, the parades began at the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in southern on Saturday morning to commemorate the anniversary of the day when Saddam Hussein’s regime launched a war on Iran between 1980 and 1988.

Similar processions are also held in other Iranian provinces to mark the auspicious occasion.

Forces from the Iranian Army, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Police, Border Guards, and Basij are participating in the parades.

During the countrywide parades, the most recent achievements of the Iranian armed forces in missile industry, equipment for the ground, naval and air defense forces as well as communication gear were put on display.

The southern port city of Bandar Abbas was also witness to a large-scale military parade involving hundreds of vessels and submarines.

The IRGC-hosted parade fielded military units from ground, air and naval forces as well as paratroopers.

The surface and subsurface units of the Army, IRGC, Police and the popular forces also paraded simultaneously in the southern waters of the country in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

The Air Force, the IRGC’s Aerospace Force along with the pilots of the Navy also demonstrated their prowess in the sky.

As many as 580 heavy vessels, ocean liners, frigates, and light and speedy vessels of the IRGC and the Army participated in the sea parade.

‘No devil dares to invade our beloved land’

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered a speech at the opening of the ceremony in Tehran, which was attended by senior military commanders and high-ranking officials of the country’s armed forces.

Praising the Iranian people’s sacrifices and valor during the Iraqi-imposed war, Pezeshkian underlined the country’s flourishing deterrence power over the years and said it had rendered the enemies incapacitated and incapable of launching any aggression against the Islamic Republic.

Stressing that Iran shattered the hopes of the enemies in the eight years of Sacred Defense, the president said, “Today, Iran’s defense power and deterrence have grown so much that no devil dares to invade our beloved land.”

The whole world attempted to prevent Iran from continuing its revolution, Pezeshkian said, but the presence of the people and the popular forces and the heroic Army and the powerful IRGC prevented them from taking over a single part of Iran’s soil.

“I appreciate all the soldiers, commanders and armed forces in the entire parts of the country. But for the commanders, military men, army personnel and admirals, today our Iran would not be safe and the people would not be able to live in peace,” he said.

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