As the US pushes forward with a bad nuclear deal, Iran continues to threaten the world.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that US officials should stop making “silly” and paradoxical statements about Iran. Washington’s threats against Tehran, he said, are no more than “mindless bluffing,” Iran’s Fars News agency reports.
“After some time that the opposite side kept silent, one of their [US] officials has recently spoken of ‘over-the-table-options’ [military options] again; on one hand, they bluff like this, and on the other hand, they say that the Islamic Republic of Iran should stop its defensive progress, which is a silly statement,” Khamenei said, addressing army officials and personnel on the occasion of Iran’s Army Day in Tehran on Sunday.
Stressing that the Islamic Republic will never accept “such silly remarks,” he declared: “The Iranian nation has proved that if it comes under aggression, it defends itself fully powerfully and will stand against the irrational invaders in an integrated form and like an iron fist.”
Khamenei, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iranian Armed Forces, called for “defensive preparedness and [to] boost their morale even to higher degrees,” stressing that his words should be seen as a military order.
Khamenei reiterated Iran’s claim that its military power should not be perceived as a regional threat.
He blasted the US and Europeans and their “puppet regimes’ media hype and allegations that Iran had sought to acquire nuclear weapons.”
“Today, the most vital threat posed to the world and the region is the US and the Zionist regime which meddle [with other states’ affairs] and kill people anywhere they deem to be necessary without any control or commitment to conscience or religious principles,” he stated.
No Inspection of Military Sites
In the meantime, a top Iranian commander said Iran will never permit inspection of its military sites.
“Not only will we not grant foreigners the permission to inspect our military sites, we will not even give them permission to think about such a subject,” the Fars News quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), as saying on a live television broadcast on Saturday.
“They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams,” he added.
A harsh response awaits anyone who talks about such inspections, he warned.
“Visiting a military base by a foreign inspector would mean the occupation of our land because all our defense secrets are there. Even talking about the subject means national humiliation,” he stated.
Some reports in the Western media say that a final deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers could see Tehran allowing international inspectors to visit its military sites. Tehran has categorically denied the reports, describing them as mere rumors and wrong interpretations of the understanding reached in early April in Switzerland.
By: Max Gelber
United with Israel
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