Iran boasts of ‘immense power’ to counter ‘foreign threats’

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps boasted of its “immense power” and said it possessed “very advanced technologies” to repel any threats to the Islamic Republic.

“Today, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has immense power with reliance on people and faith [in God], and by possessing very advanced technologies, it is ready to counter any foreign threat,” said the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari, at a cultural event on Wednesday.

Jafari reaffirmed that “defending the Islamic Revolution” was the IRGC’s main role.

“We have become so powerful that we have no concerns about the enemy’s irrational behaviors. We will address any scenario considered by the enemy,” he told the Tasnim news agency earlier this year.

Last month, Jafari criticized the Iranian nuclear agreement signed between Tehran and six world powers, saying the pact was unacceptable and “clearly in contradiction” of the Islamic Republic’s red lines.

“Some parts of the draft have clearly crossed the Islamic Republic’s red lines, especially in Iran’s military capabilities. We will never accept it,” Jafari said.

The agreement calls on Iran to slash its enrichment activity by two-thirds and open up its nuclear facilities to inspections, including military sites.

The elite IRGC force is considered to be closely allied to the militant flank of Iran’s ruling regime.

Iranian political leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have endorsed the deal, but also continued to issue fiery diatribes against the US and Israel in what some see as a bid to soothe fears by hard-liners that the deal portrays Tehran as softening.

In a show of military prowess, Iran and Russia held joint naval exercises in the Caspian Sea on Tuesday as part of a visit by two Russian Buyan-class corvettes to the region, the semi-official Iranian Fars News Agency reported.

Russian warships Volgodonsk and Makhachkala berthed in Anzali Port on August 9 for a three-day stay.

Commander of Iran’s fleet of warships in the Northern Gilan province Admiral Ahmad Reza Baqeri said that Iranian destroyer Damavand and missile-launching warships Joshan and Peika will sail with the Russian ships in the drill along with 200 other Iranian naval forces.

The Russian fleet was expected to head for Azerbaijan after the end of the exercises.

AFP contributed to this report.