Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pour-Dastan said on Monday that if its enemies dare to commit any mistake and launch a military assault on Iran, they will be given a crushing and humiliating response.
Speaking to reporters on the occasion of ‘Army Week’, he said that if its enemies ventured into making a mistake and launched aggression on Iran, the armed forces will target their bases and allies in the region.
Highlighting the capabilities of the Army’s ground forces, he said that the Iranian ground forces were the first to engage with the Iraq armed forces during the eight-year imposed war, 1980-1988.
‘The Iranian armed forces are ready to confront their enemies in a classic or non-classic war with them no matter the scale and capabilities of the enemies,’ he said.
‘The Iranian armed forces are in full combat readiness and are ready to deal with various scenarios in line with modern tactics and weapons,’ he said and added ‘Iranian ground forces are ready to confront simultaneously in different fronts with the enemies’ ground troops.
‘US forces have been entrapped in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan and are not ready to open another front with Iran and we believe that the recent threat posed by US was a media propaganda.’
However he said that Iran’s military reaction in dealing with any threats will be very decisive and swift.
He said that the presence of US forces in Afghanistan could be regarded as a potential threat to Iran, and the Islamic Republic of Iran has taken necessary measures in this respect.
The commander said that Iranian nation will witness the latest technological developments and advancements in the parade of Iranian ground forces marking Army Week.
Meanwhile, the new US defence policy, the Nuclear Posture Review, indicates that the Obama administration is toeing the line of George Bush in ‘leading America to the direction of isolation’, a UK-based political analyst has said.
‘If Barack Obama wants to continue the path of George Bush, who opted to work outside international framework, rules and consensus, then he will find that unilateralism will only lead to its isolation particularly among Muslim nations,’ Saeed Shehabi told the Iranian news agency, IRNA, on Monday.
According to the 72-page US Nuclear Posture Review document, America has singled out Iran as a potential target of US atomic bombing.
The document lays out a rationale that would justify the use of nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state for the first time since the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
‘You cannot work in today’s world with your own decision-making process which excludes others and laws.
‘If Mr Obama wants to be different from his predecessor, he should emphasise on multilateralism and internationalism,’ Shehabi said, reiterating that passing rules for the benefit of your own would only lead America to ‘the direction of isolation’.
Criticising the tradition by US presidents to circumvent United Nations rules, he said Obama should make the United Nations a strong body rather than a ‘symbolic organisation’.
Asked if the new US defence policy amounts to a declaration of war against Iran, the UK-based expert said America cannot afford another war in the Middle East.
‘War is not the safest of options. War can be easily started but not finished . . .
‘You now see how Americans are involved in Iraq and Afghanistan. They cannot easily pull out of these wars which have weakened their economy and military might,’ he said, urging Obama to avoid the use of aggressive rhetoric against Iran.
‘The natural instinct is to respond in kind. If I tell you “I will break your windows with stone”, you also have stones available to hit my windows.
‘Iran has been under constant threat by America and Israel.’
Shehabi said the US warmongering against Iran is causing unease in the region and could trigger an arms race which would endanger the global security.
‘. . . because other countries such as Turkey would then say: “Oh, it seems if I turn against Israel, I may be targeted one day by the US nuclear weapons. So I’d better start building my own weapons”.
‘The case of India and Pakistan is a good example of this.’
Separately, a member of the French Senate said in Tehran on Monday that her country recognises Iran’s rights to gain peaceful nuclear technology.
Josette Durrieu, a member of French Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Armed Forces and the Socialist Group made the remarks in a meeting with Iran’s member of Majlis (Parliament) Mehdi Mehdizadeh.
Durrieu said the Islamic Republic of Iran has a right to ask a question on why some countries can gain nuclear technology while the other nations cannot.
The French Senator said that Iran is playing an important role in bringing about peace to the Middle East region and to the Persian Gulf as well.
Meanwhile, Mehdizadeh said the Iranian nation seeks peace and tranquility, and his French visitor said the French nation had the same aim.
On Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, he said that the related activities are all peaceful and based on the International Atomic Energy Agency regulations.
He stressed that Iran is working to produce nuclear energy as a substitute to fossil fuel which is running out.
Later, the two officials conferred on both international and regional issues. They also held talks on the history of the two nations’ cultures.
Meanwhile, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency Hans Blix on Monday called on the United States to step up diplomacy with Iran in a bid to resolve the deadlock over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Talking to the Deutschland radio station, Blix said it was ‘absurd to claim that all diplomatic means had already been exhausted’.
New elements of this stepped up Iran diplomacy could be the resumption of diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington, in addition to providing security guarantees for Iran by the United States, he added.
The former Swedish foreign minister pointed out ‘another option’ would be the creation of a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East.
Blix headed the Vienna-based UN nuclear watchdog between 1981 and 1997.
• Iran and Turkey on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a joint industrial township in the West Azarbaijan province bordering Turkey.
The signing took place in the Chamber of Commerce at Orumiyeh, West Azarbaijan.
West Azarbaijan province has a 900km joint border with Turkey, Iraq and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.