IRGC Chief: Middle East A Potential Field of Fire for US
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The growing aversion to the US across Muslim countries and the strong anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiments among the younger generation have turned the Middle East region into a tinderbox for the US, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said.
Addressing a military gathering in Tehran on Sunday, Major General Hossein Salami highlighted Washington’s fear of attacks by resistance groups and the growing number of young Muslims in Islamic countries who have a craving for a battle against the US and Israel, saying these have turned the region into a “potential field of fire” for the US.
“The philosophy of the Americans is to plunder nations and pave the way for modern slavery and unilateral dominance over the fate of nations, and such a political philosophy generates war, not power at all,” he added.
Pointing to the gradual decline of big powers and their downward spiral, the commander underlined that the IRGC is “at the forefront of a confrontation” with the exhausted and disappointed enemies who are looking for a way to regain power.
Major General Salami also noted that the proximity of US forces to Iran has given the IRGC the opportunity to mobilize its forces. “When the threat is distant from us, we deal with it on a strategic scale, but when the threat approaches us, we will be activated at the operational levels as well.”
“We are not after war and yet we are not afraid of it either, but in turn, our enemies lack the will to make a war and are afraid of fighting,” he said, stressing that the IRGC has prepared all the factors of its defense power.
In comments last week, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined that there will be no military confrontation between Iran and the US as Washington is aware that it won’t be in its interest, adding that negotiation with the US is not on the Islamic Republic’s agenda either.
“The Iranian nation’s definite option will be resistance in the face of the US, and in this confrontation, the US would be forced into a retreat,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Neither we nor they, who know war will not be in their interest, are after war.”