No Script

Please Wait...

Ramadan Kareem...

Iran Vows Strongest Response to US If Its Security At Stake – Army Chief Of Staff

Iran Vows Strongest Response to US If Its Security At Stake – Army Chief Of Staff
folder_openIran access_time3 years ago
starAdd to favorites

By Staff, Agencies

Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri vowed that the country will show the most severe reaction to the United States if it does anything to undermine the Islamic Republic’s security.

“If [Americans] take the smallest step against the security of our country, they will be faced with the most severe reaction,” Major General Baqeri said on Thursday in allusion to recent steps taken by the US military in neighboring Iraq, which have been seen by many experts as a prelude to a possible US attack on Popular Mobilization Units [PMU], known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi, in the Arab country.

“The recent days have witnessed an increase, to some extent, in the US’ military activities across Iraq and the Gulf,” he said.

“On the psychological and media fronts too, they [the Americans] are engaged in massive dissemination of news denoting that they have plans against resistance groups in Iraq and Hashd al-Shaabi,” Baqeri said, adding, "We are completely monitoring such activities".

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump claimed that Iran was about to launch an attack on US troops or American “assets” in Iraq, warning, "If this happens, Iran will pay a very heavy price, indeed."

Meanwhile, an Iraqi security source said a group of US troops had withdrawn from al-Taqaddum Airbase in al-Anbar, and moved to Ain al-Assad Airbase in the western Iraqi province. There have been other reports that US forces are handing over more military bases to Iraqi forces and taking their troops to more secure facilities elsewhere in Iraq.

Trump’s remarks were the latest in the torrent of US claims accusing the Islamic Republic of trying to target the terrorist US forces in the Arab country. Previously, Washington had repeatedly tried to pin sporadic rocket attacks on installations housing the forces on, what it calls, “Iran-backed” Iraqi fighters, and threatening Tehran with “retaliation.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, General Baqeri referred to the actions taken against American bases across Iraq over the past recent weeks as “the Iraqi people's and resistance forces’ natural reaction to the sinister assassinations carried out by Americans” in the Arab country in early January.

On January 3, a US drone strike assassinated Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, and the PMU’s second-in-command, Hajj Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and a number of others, targeting their vehicle in Baghdad. At the time of the crime, General Soleimani was on an official trip in the Iraqi capital at Baghdad’s request.

Comments