TEHRAN – The enemy has become “frustrated” due to its failure to physically harm the Islamic Republic of Iran and therefore it does not have the “military option” on the table, says Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Hossein Salami.

“However, in line with its enmity toward the establishment, the enemy has targeted the people’s religion, culture, livelihood and health,” Major General Salami said on Wednesday.

He made the remarks on the anniversary of Basij Day, which falls on November 25.

The general said Basij members are not afraid of any enemy.

“We are standing till the end, and the end of this resistance is the complete decline of the enemy,” Salami said.

In similar remarks in September, the IRGC commander said a military war against Iran is “basically abandoned”.

“They [enemies] have opened an economic infiltration and psychological war channel [against Iran],” Salami said on September 29.

He said Iran should strive day and night to thwart the enemies’ economic war, arguing that the country’s capacities are enough to defeat the enemies.

The senior commander also said the enemy is neither capable nor willing to resolve Iran’s issues.

“The path to our welfare never passes through interaction with the enemy,” Salami suggested.

“Even if we reconcile with [the U.S.], still it will harm us… and destroy our resolve,” he added.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal, officially recognized as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018, and imposed the “harshest ever sanctions” on Iran to force it to negotiate a new deal.

Iran has strongly rejected Washington’s call for renewed talks, citing the U.S. bashing of the internationally-endorsed JCPOA as a manifestation of its untrustworthiness.

Salami has been an outspoken general with regard to the U.S. acts of hostilities toward Iran.

Last week, he owed to avenge the cold blood killing of Iran’s top anti-terror general Qassem Soleimani “in the field”.

“We will definitely avenge the blood of martyred Lieutenant General Haj Qassem Soleimani in the field,” Salami said in a meeting with Iraqi Minister of Defense Juma Inad Saadoun in Tehran on November 15.

He said the revenge is not related to Iran’s legal proceedings of the killing through international bodies.

“We are certain that the children of the great Iraq will also avenge the blood of their respected general, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis,” he added.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered drone strikes that martyred General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC attacked Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq, where U.S. forces were stationed, as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terror attack. Iran has asserted that taking revenge for the assassination is not over.

According to Salami, the two martyrs played the most significant role in the defeat of Daesh (ISIS) and the defeat of plots hatched by the Zionists and the Americans in the region.

MH/PA