TEHRAN -- Iran’s Islamic
Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday warned that it will take action to destroy terrorist and counterrevolutionary in the Iraqi Kurdistan if the regional authorities do not expel these them.
“If this request is not met, we will act on our duty to destroy their positions and bases,” Brigadier General Muhammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC’s Ground Force, said in the western city of Sanandaj.
The IRGC will not tolerate the groups’ entrenchment in northern Iran and “will confront it forcefully,” he added, addressing the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Gen. Pakpour also said the level of the IRGC’s military readiness to deal with any threat has reached the “premium threshold”.
In the past, the IRGC has targeted terrorist redoubts in the Iraqi Kurdistan through direct military engagement, using ballistic missiles as well as combat and kamikaze drones.
Turning to another issue, the commander said signs of the United States’ defeat “have become apparent throughout the world”.
He referred to the U.S. withdrawal last month from Afghanistan following two decades of occupation as “their biggest defeat”.
Pakpour also addressed the issue of the Islamic Republic’s growing influence and might on the regional and international scene, including its military capabilities.
Iran is currently enjoying “a determining” position in the JCPOA negotiations, he said, using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a 2015 nuclear deal reached between Iran and world powers.