(AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Iran’s armed forces will respond decisively to any attack by the US, the Iranian defense minister stated, in response to remarks by his American counterpart that the military option remains intact should Tehran fail to comply with the nuclear deal signed in July.
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan stated on Saturday that his military would deliver a crushing blow to any act of war instigated by Israel or the US, the Iranian Fars News Agency reports.
“Our Armed Forces are always ready to give a response to the US administration and the Zionist regime’s mischiefs,” Dehghan stated.
His warning followed remarks made by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in Washington last week at a joint press conference. Carter warned that if Iran does not comply with the nuclear deal signed with the six global powers, it will face an American military threat, and he alluded to close cooperation with Israel.
“I’m under instructions from President Obama to make sure that the military option remains intact, and I worked very hard on that, and we brief our Israeli colleagues on that from time to time, as we have for quite a long time,” Carter said.
Ya’alon spoke about Iran’s “non-stop attempts at harming Israel” with the help of proxies, adding that the Islamic Republic “also challenges US interests in the Middle East.”
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon ( Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90))
“These [Iranian] sects on the ground require us to keep Israel’s military strong, and maintain the Israel Defense Forces’ ability to defend our nation against any enemy, any time, and any place, along our borders and far beyond,” Ya’alon asserted.
“This is a joint challenge to our nations, United States and Israel, and in our conversations here, we discuss further strengthening ties between our defense establishment, and the ways to aid the IDF in maintaining its strategic qualitative military edge in the Middle East,” he added.
According to the Fars report, Dehghan, in his statement on Saturday, claimed Iranian military superiority and charged that the US and Israel are seen by nations around the world as “warmongering, aggressive, bloodthirsty and anti-human rights regimes.”
Dehghan, Fars says, “underscored that even small states that are not well equipped, including Somalia, Lebanon and ‘Palestine’, have forced the US and Israel to experience defeat, failure and humiliation; hence, when it comes to the powerful Iranian nation with its old civilization, the country will be ready to ‘give an unforgettable lesson to the aggressors.’”
The Iranian Forces, he continued, “will give a proper and crushing response to any threat, given their intelligence superiority over the enemy front’s situation and moves.”
By: Terri Nir, United with Israel