THE commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) warns the Islamic Republic will harshly confront the Israeli regime wherever it deems necessary.
‘If an act of aggression is carried out against the interests of the Islamic establishment anywhere in the world, we will respond with seriousness,’ Brigadier General Esmail Qa’ani said on Thursday.
The senior commander reminded the regime of the IRGC’s forceful missile attack on secret bases of Israel’s Mossad spy agency in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
‘In Erbil, many people who lived next to you did not know (the attacked site) was your base, but you had been under our surveillance,’ he said, addressing the Zionists.
The IRGC strike in March targeted ‘strategic centre of Zionist conspiracy and evil’ in Erbil in response to an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital of Damascus, in which two officers of Iran’s elite force lost their lives.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has issued a stern warning to Israel following a retaliatory missile strike on the ‘strategic centre of Zionist conspiracy and evil’ in the northern Iraqi Kurdistan city of Erbil.
The attack targeted 10 Israeli operatives, killing three of them and leaving seven others wounded.
‘Therefore, wherever we identify (an Israeli threat), we will definitely confront the Zionist regime harshly. They are too small to confront us,’ Qa’ani said.
He added that Iran has supported and will continue to support any group that fights the Israeli regime, emphasising that the annihilation of the Tel Aviv regime is gaining ground.
With a shaky government at work in Tel Aviv, which is already on the verge of collapse, the downfall of the regime would surely be accelerated, the IRGC commander pointed out.
He noted that Iran knows where and when it should confront the Israeli regime.
Iran supports Muslims in confrontation with oppressive powers.
The IRGC commander paid tribute to the Palestinians who lost their lives in the fight against the Israeli regime and said: ‘Resistance has now spread across the world.’
Qa’ani pledged Iran’s support for all Muslims anywhere in the world in their battle against oppressive powers.
‘Saudis must understand Yemen war won’t benefit them’
The senior IRGC commander also advised the ‘unwise’ Saudi officials that they must realise they have been defeated in the war on Yemen despite all the means they possessed, saying: ‘This war is not one that benefits them.’
He was echoing an advice by Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, to Saudi officials.
Qa’ani slammed Saudi Arabia’s crimes in Yemen, including the destruction of the impoverished country’s infrastructures, and said: ‘We have conclusive and definitive evidence of Saudi crimes.’
Ayatollah Khamenei on Tuesday praised the Yemeni people’s bravery in countering the Saudi-led aggression, while advising Saudi Arabia to end a war it well knows it cannot win.
‘Why do you go ahead with the war that you already know there is no possibility (for you) to win? Find a solution and get yourselves out of this arena,’ the Leader said, referring to the Saudis.
- With parliamentary elections nearing in Lebanon, political campaigns have heightened. The main battle will be between Hezbollah and its allies on one side and the anti-resistance bloc on the other.
One of the biggest critics of Hezbollah, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said in a press conference Wednesday that disarming the resistance was part of his party’s political programme.
He also accused Hezbollah of exploiting the concept of resistance to force Shiites to vote for Hezbollah. His other target has been the Free Patriotic movement headed by Jibran Basil, Hezbollah’s main Christian ally.
Member of Parliament of the biggest Christian bloc lawmaker Alain Aoun told Press TV that their alliance with Hezbollah is based on their vision of national interest and national partnership.
Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah responded recently to the mundane accusations and said that Hezbollah has never attempted to obliterate any side, but that the other front has tried to exclude a main representative of the Lebanese People when they sought to crush the resistance in 2006.
The upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon are expected to make minor changes in the political layout of the country; however, what is more significant is how some sides will attempt to undermine the votes which are in favour of Hezbollah and its allies in what will be the most polarised and tense electoral campaigns since 2005.
- Dmitry Medvedev has explained that it will be necessary for Russia to beef up the group of ground troops and the air defence system and deploy substantial naval forces in the Gulf of Finland.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia will beef up security along its Western borders if Sweden and Finland join NATO and there would be no more talk of a nuclear-free Baltic.
‘Very soon, that is precisely by this summer, the world will become even “safer”,’ he noted. ‘If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the alliance’s land border with Russia will more than double. Naturally, it will be necessary to strengthen these borders,’ he maintained.
Medvedev explained that it would be necessary to beef up the group of ground troops and the air defence system and deploy substantial naval forces in the Gulf of Finland.
‘If this is the case, there can no longer be talk about the Baltic’s non-nuclear status – the balance must be restored,’ he stated.
‘Until today, Russia has not taken such measures, nor was it going to do so. If we are forced to, then “note, it wasn’t us who suggested this,” as a character in a famous old movie said,’ he added.
The top official noted that currently, Sweden and Finland are discussing the possibility of joining the alliance ‘with ferocious seriousness.’ That said, NATO itself ‘is ready to literally carry them in, as quickly as possible and with the least amount of bureaucratic procedures.
‘The US is broadcasting its “Welcome!” to the representatives of Northern Europe literally in every way possible. Just humbly knock – and we will let you in. And what does this mean? This means that Russia will have more official adversaries,’ he pointed out.
He added that it is clear that Moscow should react to this ‘without emotions, and with a cool head.
‘The number of countries in NATO – thirty or thirty-two – on the whole is not really important to us. Two more, two less, with their importance and population there is no big difference,’ he noted.
That said, Medvedev stressed that there is no sense in arguing that if it was not for the special operation in Ukraine, the accession of these countries to NATO wouldn’t have been an issue in the first place, and the situation would have been simpler for Russia.
‘This is not true. First of all, the attempts to drag them into the alliance were made before. Secondly, which is the main thing, we do not have territorial disputes with these countries like with Ukraine. This is why the value of such membership is different for us,’ he explained.
The deputy chairman of the Security Council noted that public opinion in Sweden and Finland on the issue of the necessity of joining NATO is divided practically down the middle and this is after ‘the utmost effort of homespun advocates.’
‘Nobody in their right mind wants higher prices and taxes, mounting tension along the borders, Iskanders, hypersonic weapons or ships with nukes a stone’s throw from their house. Let’s hope that the common sense of our neighbours eventually prevails. Yet if not, then, as they say, “they started it”,’ Medvedev concluded
