TEHRAN – The enemy won’t dare to attack Iran as long as “we are ready to counter the threats and resist against the enemy,” says Major General Gholam Ali Rashid, commander of Khatam ol-Anbia Central Headquarters.

“The strength and readiness of the Armed Forces are at a very high level,” General Rashid said during a visit to the Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, Mehr reported.

Just like the way Iranian warriors fought the enemy during the 8-year Sacred Defense (Iran’s resistance against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iran in the 1980s) and did not allow even an inch of their land to remain in occupation Hussein’s army, today they are defending these islands as well, he stated.

Pointing to U.S. plots against Iran, the general said the victory of the Islamic Revolution was first in a series of heavy defeats inflicted on the U.S. by the noble Iranian nation.

He cited resistance as the reason for Iran’s successes against the United States in recent years, quoting Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has said: “The cost of submission is far greater than the cost of resistance.”

Tension between Tehran and Washington has been running high since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced crushing sanctions against Iran.

Tensions entered a new stage since April when the U.S. designated the IRGC (part of the Iranian military) as a terrorist organization, announced that it does no renew waivers for the eight major buyers of the Iranian oil, and started beefing up its military presence in the region, particularly in the Persian Gulf.

The tension escalated as on June 20 the Iranian military shot down an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone after it breached Iran’s airspace. The U.S. drone entered the Iranian airspace from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

MH/PA