Iran military official: Potential conflict with US “natural”
Washington, 25 August (IranVNC)—The deputy head of Iran’s Armed Forces Central Command, General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr yesterday said that regional powers were incapable of confronting Iran militarily, adding it was “natural” that Iran could face a future conflict only with a global power such as the United States.
By: IranVNC
Published: Monday, August 25, 2008
US – IRAN – CONFLICT
15:00 GMT—11:00 AM/EST
Washington, 25 August (IranVNC)—The deputy head of Iran’s Armed Forces Central Command, General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr yesterday said that regional powers were incapable of confronting Iran's militarily, adding it was “natural” that Iran could face a future conflict only with a global power such as the United States.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has no enemies at the regional level and with the fall of [Saddam Hussein’s] Baath regime, other regional countries do not have the capability to confront Iran and they do not look at Iran with enmity and negativity. Therefore, it is natural that our possible future confrontation will be with a supra-regional power such as the United States,” the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Zolghadr as saying at a press conference.
A conflict between these two countries, however, was unlikely to involve traditional warfare, he said.
“Naturally a war with the United States will not be a traditional conflict where tanks and jets and anti-aircraft artillery face each other,” he said.
Nevertheless, he did not rule out the use of conventional weapons, saying Iran was likely to use its conventional weapons and its missile arsenal, “in such a way that the enemy would not be able to guess the place, the time, or the method of use of these weapons, something that became an important issue after the US attack on Iraq and Afghanistan.”
A day after Zolqadr’s comments, Iran announced that it had started the production of a new line of domestically-manufactured submarines capable of “carrying and firing various torpedoes and subsurface missiles with a special operation crew onboard,” the website of Iran’s state-run English Press.
Iran recently said it would “control” the flow of sea vessels through the Strait of Hormoz in the Persian Gulf, if attacked. The US has not ruled out a military attack on Iran’s nuclear sites if diplomacy fails to persuade that country to give up its controversial uranium enrichment program.
Reuters today cited military experts as saying that Iran’s military lacks the sophistication necessary to confront the U.S. in combat, but Iran could make conditions in the Persian Gulf very difficult for the U.S.
More than 40 percent of the world’s crude oil supply passes through the Hormoz waterway off of Iran’s southern border.
Iran carried out a series of military exercises in the waters of the Persian Gulf in July, testing a series of missiles capable of targeting US interests in the region and potentially reaching Israel.
Zolqadr yesterday characterized those military exercises as a “warning to our enemies,” who, he said, would be ambushed by “tens of millions” belonging to Iran’s volunteer militia, the Basij, which is overseen by that country’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.
“[Via the Basij] the Guards Corps connected itself to the great masses, and when people are connected with the defense [of the country], this creates the greatest deterrent,” he said.
Regarding Iran’s missile capabilities, government spokesperson Hassan Qashqavi said today: “The trend toward higher technical achievements by Iran’s young scientists, including in the areas of missile and space [technology] will continue,” the official IRNA news agency reports.
Sources: Fars News Agency in Persian, ISNA in Persian
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