Iran’s top military commander asserts that the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces confronted the Israeli and American aggression with the full range of their capabilities and military prowess during last month’s assaults by Tel Aviv and Washington.
Major General Abdulrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of the Armed Forces, made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Qatar’s Defence Minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah on Tuesday.
‘Iran’s Armed Forces stood up to bullying using all of their capabilities, and responded to the aggressors with the entirety of their might,’ the commander noted.
On June 13, the Israeli regime began a series of airstrikes against the Islamic Republic with unprecedented American military and intelligence support.
Iran’s Armed Forces began responding initially with comprehensive defensive manoeuvers.
Shortly afterwards, however, they launched rapid, forceful, and unyielding counter-offensive, unleashing precision strikes against critical nuclear, military, and industrial targets deep within the occupied Palestinian territories.
The relentless reprisal, codenamed Operation True Promise III, deployed hundreds of ballistic missiles – many of which were multi-warhead and supersonic ones – as well as numerous armed drones.
The strikes pummelled the heart of Tel Aviv, the regime’s economic stronghold; Haifa, its key deep-water port; and Be’er Sheva, the hub of the Zionist entity’s modern development and technology.
Feeling the heat from the retaliation, the regime was forced to seek a ceasefire after 12 days, despite having some of the US’s most advanced missile systems primed to intercept the incoming Iranian fire.
The commander’s remarks also concerned a ballistic missile strike that was carried out by the Iranian forces against al-Udeid – the US’s most important regional airbase that is located in Qatar – in response to American attacks against Iranian nuclear sites that took place towards the end of the Israeli war.
Mousavi noted how the United States did not begrudge the regime any assistance throughout the warfare, providing it with no-holds-barred support, including logistical backing.
He, however, highlighted that the world’s Muslim nations and governments as well as free-thinking people, nevertheless, voiced decisive support for the Islamic Republic in the course of the aggression.
Overall, the trajectory featuring the aggression and the response proved the Islamic Republic’s ‘rightfulness’ to the entire world, besides confirming that neither the US nor the Zionist regime were committed to any international principals or norms, the official underlined.
He, meanwhile, hailed Qatar as a ‘friendly state’ and lauded its decisive condemnation of the Israeli aggression, expressing gratitude over the ‘valuable’ position adopted by Doha throughout the military assault.
Meanwhile, a senior military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran has stockpiled several thousand missiles and drones in secure locations ready to defend the country against any act of aggression.
Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi said on Monday that the Armed Forces are fully prepared for any scenario, amid reports that Israel could launch another attack on Iran despite a ceasefire that ended 12 days of military aggression last month.
He noted that key military branches – such as the Navy and the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) – were not mobilised and the Army did not deploy its full capabilities as the Armed Forces fended off Israeli attacks.
‘We have produced several thousand missiles and drones so far, and their place is secure,’ he added.
‘Peaceful nuclear energy and the manufacturing of missiles are the results of indigenous knowledge, intellect, and science,’ and thus they cannot be destroyed, he said.
Rahim-Safavi also described Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a ‘wicked and criminal’ person who has killed 60,000 people in Gaza and virtually 1,000 in Iran in pursuit of his own objectives.
However, he noted that Netanyahu ‘failed to achieve all his goals because the Islamic Republic was neither overthrown nor divided, and the people did not disperse. Although we suffered damage, we also inflicted damage on them (the Israelis).’
On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked aggression against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.
More than a week later, the United States joined the war and bombed three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.
On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault.
Rahim-Safavi pointed to the serious blows that Iran dealt to Israel during the 12-day war, saying the Zionist regime is applying a heavy media censorship in this regard.
In the more than seventy years of its disgraceful existence, Israel has never witnessed anything like Iran’s response to the aggression, which involved the firing of hundreds of missiles towards the occupied lands, with each carrying over 80 warheads and covering an area of 40 kilometres, the advisor said.
He further hailed the wise decisions made by Ayatollah Khamenei, who appointed successors to the martyred military commanders in less than 24 hours from their assassinations by Israel.
Meanwhile, the advisor slammed Israel’s wrong strategy in dealing with the Palestinians and the Islamic Republic, saying despite 21 months of genocidal war on Gaza, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is still alive, but the Israeli military is exhausted.
No occupying power in history has ever managed to remain permanently in a land it has seized, the Iranian official said.
Furthermore, Iran’s armed forces, led by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, demonstrated the strategic effectiveness of their domestically built missile systems during the recent Israeli-imposed war, shifting the balance in their favour, according to an analyst.
Reza Sadr al-Hosseini said in an interview that the Iranian retaliatory operations ‘created a significant surprise among political, military, and security observers’.
According to Sadr al-Hosseini, the success of these operations decisively nullified long-standing propaganda from Israeli and Western media, proving that Iran’s missile programme is a critical pillar of its defence strategy.
He noted that prior to the True Promise I and True Promise II operations, Israeli and Western media had mocked Iran’s missile systems, dismissing them as ‘photoshops’.
However, the first, second, and third rounds of the True Promise operations silenced these detractors, delivering irreparable damage to Israel’s much-hyped military infrastructure.
‘The final missile strikes, launched just twelve hours before the ceasefire, further imposed Iran’s will on Israeli leadership,’ he stated.
The Iranian analyst also rejected claims by Israeli officials and US President Donald Trump that Iran’s nuclear and military facilities had been destroyed.
‘If these claims were even remotely true, there would not have been a conflict between Trump and his critics in Congress, the Pentagon, and opposition groups over the damage supposedly dealt to Iran’s nuclear capabilities,’ he noted.
The lack of a consistent narrative in Western media and among strategic experts, he added, further undermines these assertions.
‘If Iran’s capabilities were truly eliminated, why would Trump push for new negotiations? Negotiations about what? If everything were destroyed, what is left to discuss?’
At the heart of Iran’s resilience in the nuclear and missile sectors is the indigenous nature of its missile programme.
Sadr al-Hosseini emphasised that because these capabilities are developed domestically, they are impervious to external threats or destruction.
‘This resilience was evident in the IRGC’s final surprises before the ceasefire, demonstrating the armed forces’ readiness to confront aggression,’ he said.
He also dismissed claims of foreign arms transfers to Iran as ‘nothing more than a psychological operation by Western intelligence services,’ reaffirming that Iran’s defensive power is entirely self-reliant.
Regarding future talks with the US and European countries over Iran’s nuclear programme, Sadr al-Hosseini said Tehran has never rejected dialogue and remains open to it, provided there is a clear subject, defined scope, set timeline, and a credible counterpart.
Iran demonstrated its sincerity through five rounds of indirect negotiations with the US, addressing mutual interests, and through continued engagement with European officials.
Yet, for now, ‘neither dialogue with the Americans nor with the Europeans will resume quickly’, he added.
This pause also applies to Iran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which was pushed by the Iranian parliament following the UN nuclear agency’s indifference to Israeli and American aggression against Iran’s peaceful nuclear sites.
‘Following a recent law passed by the Iranian parliament, Iran has reduced its level of engagement with the IAEA while remaining a member. The law mandates a more precise and measured approach to expert discussions regarding its peaceful nuclear activities,’ Sadr al-Hosseini stated.
- Iran has completed the first phase of a major water transfer project from the Sea of Oman to its central province of Isfahan, according to the governor of the province.
Mehdi Jamalinejad announced on Tuesday that the 800-kilometre pipeline network, which carries desalinated water from the Sea of Oman in southeastern Iran to industrial customers in Isfahan, is now complete.
Jamalinejad said storage tanks, pumping stations and other key facilities of the transfer project had all been installed.
‘This phase allows for the transfer of 70 million cubic meters (per year) of desalinated water to Isfahan,’ he said without giving details on when the project will be officially inaugurated.
The governor said, however, that the water will be supplied to Isfahan Oil Refinery, one of the largest oil processing facilities in Iran, and other industries in north of the province of Isfahan before it is supplied to Mobarakeh Steel Company, the largest steel maker in the West Asia region which is located to the south of the province.
The two companies have provided funds for the large project, said Jamalinejad, adding that the support had allowed the project to finish in less than two years.
Isfahan is one of the most industrial regions in Iran. However, it has relied on water diversion projects from nearby provinces, negatively affecting agricultural activities in those areas and leading to growing dissatisfaction among farmers.
Isfahan’s iconic Zayanderud river has almost dried up as a result of the excessive use of water for industrial and agricultural purposes.
A second phase of the project to transfer water from the Sea of Oman to Isfahan would allow for the supply of 400 million cubic meters per year of desalinated water to industries in the region, according to Isfahan’s governor.
