Commander: Armed Forces Fully Prepared to Defend Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian military commander stressed full preparedness of the country's Armed Forces to defend Iran against enemies' threats.

"The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are ready to respond to any threat," Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said on Saturday. 

"We consider full preparedness as a duty for ourselves and we don't neglect it even for a single second," he noted. 

He further added that the Iranian forces are monitoring enemy threats on land, in air, in sea and under water. 

The commander further pointed to the US and Israel's growing war rhetoric against Iran, and said threatening remarks are nothing new to Iran, but this time they are aimed at distracting public attention from the ongoing crises in the US. 

The Zionist regime of Israel has intensified its war rhetoric against Iran since early November. Israeli media alleged last week that air strikes could be in the offing against Iran. Israeli President Shimon Peres said last weekend that such action was becoming "more and more likely". 

On Thursday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned enemies about Iran's tough response to any aggression or even threat, stressing that the country would respond with full force to any attack. 

"Iran is not a nation to sit still and just observe threats from fragile materialist powers which are being eaten by worms from inside," Ayatollah Khamenei told students at a Tehran military college. 

"Anyone who harbors any thought of invading the Islamic Republic of Iran - or even if the thought crosses their mind - should be prepared to receive strong blows and the steel fists of the military, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and the Basij (volunteer) force, backed by the entire Iranian nation," he said. 

"Iran will respond with full force to any aggression or even threats in a way that will demolish the aggressors from within," he added. 

Also, a senior Iranian Armed Forces commander warned on Friday that Tehran would adopt new policies if the US and its allies continue hostile stances and threats against the Islamic Republic. 

"Hegemonic regimes should change their approach and retreat from their hostile positions, otherwise they should wait for the Islamic Republic of Iran's new stances," Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri told FNA on Friday. 

The General warned that his warning is not intended to serve as war of words and Tehran's new stances would also include action. 

He said Iran's new stance "would not be limited to propaganda measures and psychological operations", rather "the enemy should be encountered in a way that it would be prevented from doing any action". 

The senior Iranian commander hoped that enemies' previous failures encourage them to give up their belligerent attitude towards Iran, but meantime warned that if enemies persist in continuing their hostilities and threats against the Islamic Republic, "Iran would have no way out but to embark on certain actions and encounters to make the westerners give up such attitudes forever". 

He said the US and its allies know well that Iran would not sway under pressures and aggressive policies against Iran would never yield any fruit for the West, "but they do not give up their aggressive attempts" because "they intend to affect the public opinion through their threats". 

"Although they have not obtained any result through this method, we should not allow the hegemonic regimes to continue using this kind of literature and discourse on global and international scenes," he added. 

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9007273093