TEHRAN – Major General Hossein Salami has praised the IRGC’s intelligence unit as well as the Intelligence Ministry for their “round-the-clock war” against enemies.

“Today, we are engaged in a serious, global round-the-clock intelligence war with enemies,” said Salami, the new chief of the IRGC, during a meeting with Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi in Tehran on Sunday.

He said Iran’s intelligence forces are usually one step ahead of the enemy, according to the IRIB.

The top commander described the Guards’ intelligence unit and the Intelligence Ministry as “the two sharp eyes” of the Islamic Revolution which “complement each other on the battlefield.”

Salami highlighted the importance of Iran’s intelligence work, saying, “Today, the intelligence factor contributes to the country’s prestige and if the enemy faces our strong will, it will back down.”

He called for awareness in the face of enemy plots but made it clear that none of the adversaries are to be overestimated just on the basis of their “psychological warfare” and “media propaganda”.

“Today, our enemies appear scary and buff but deep inside they suffer from severe osteoporosis,” he added.

Alavi, for his part, congratulated General Salami on his recent appointment as the new IRGC chief and hailed close ties between the two intelligence organizations.

“We hope that, hand in hand with our Guards’ brothers, we can accomplish our critical mission to protect the country and the Islamic Revolution in the best possible manner,” he continued.

Earlier this month, Alavi revealed that Tehran had identified 290 U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents across different countries, forcing Washington to form a special committee to reassess its cloak-and-dagger operations.

He made references to what U.S. spy experts have described as a major intelligence defeat for America.

Alavi pointed to a November 2018 Yahoo News article that said Iran’s intelligence had gained access to a secret CIA communications system, allowing Iranians to not only discover and detain U.S. assets in the country, but also probably share key findings with Chinese and Russian authorities.

The intelligence minister added that as many as 114 Takfiri terrorist teams, 116 Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) teams, 44 teams seeking to overthrow the Iranian government and 380 drug smuggling bands were busted over the past year alone.

Iran’s past calendar year ended on March 20, 2019.

He said the intelligence community of Iran neutralized 188 other criminal groups, including four people who were recently arrested in southwest of the country along with 15,000 AK-47 rounds.

Salami’s meeting with Alavi came as the most recent leg of his meetings with high-ranking officials as the new commander of the Guards. On May 5, he met with Defense Minister Amir Hatami. During that meeting, Salami emphasized that enemies of Iran have been exhausted, reassuring that Tehran’s foes will sooner or later crumble because of their internal decays.

Salami was appointed as the IRGC commander on April 21 upon a decree by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In that decree, the Leader promoted Salami to the rank of major general and replaced him for Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari who had held the post since September 2007.

Salami had acted as the IRGC second-in-command under Jafari. The Leader also thanked general Jafari for his valuable and great services.

In part of his decree, Ayatollah Khamenei told Salami that based on the need for change in the IRGC commandership suggested by Major General Jafari and “in view of your competence and valuable experiences in top and different managerial posts in the revolutionary, jihadi, and popular institutes of the Guards… I appoint you, by granting the rank of major general, to the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps.”

SP/PA