TEHRAN -- The former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has said that Iran enjoys a high geopolitical status and has become a great power in the Middle East.

The possibility that the U.S. and Israel will launch a military attack against Iran is very low since Iran has greatly improved its defense capabilities, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi told a gathering of school teachers in Tehran on Saturday.
They may decide to launch an attack against Iran, but they will not be able to determine the duration of such a war and when it will end, he noted.
Safavi added that any possible attack against Iran would be aerial and naval, and Iran’s defensive capabilities are advanced to such an extent that the attackers would regret their action.
The Iranian military is a great power in the Middle East, and any attack against the country would not be without consequences, he stated.
Iran’s military strategy is defensive, and Iran will not invade any other country, added Safavi, who is currently the military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, due to the fact that the image of the United States had suffered a blow because it was not able to keep the monarchist regime in power, the U.S. encouraged Iraq to invade Iran in 1980.
In addition, at the time the Soviet Union was also selling billions of dollars worth of military equipment and arms to Iraq’s Baathist regime, he noted. And some Sunni countries were pleased that two Shia majority countries were fighting a war against each other, Safavi added