TEHRAN -- The commander of the Iranian Army’s Air Defense Force on Saturday warned the enemies of a crushing response if they make any mistake, saying the security of the Iranian airspace is a “red line” for the force.
“The Air Defense Force, with eyes that are always open and watchful and with all its might, is the protector of the sky of this country, because the security of the Iranian airspace is the Air Defense Force’s red line and the highest point of sensitivity,” Brigadier General Alireza Sabahi-Fard said.
Sabahi-Fard warned that the Islamic Republic does not back away from or joke about its national interests.
“The enemies may make a mistake and threaten our country with military action, but we are the ones who stand against them with full readiness and, if they make a mistake, we will make them regret it,” the top Iranian general warned.
In recent months, Iranian commanders have sternly warned the U.S. and the occupying regime of Israel against continuing their anti-Iran rhetoric and threats. Last month, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said the Israeli regime lacks the power to launch large-scale attacks against Iran.
Earlier, the National Review published details of a recent letter by a group of U.S. House lawmakers who asked President Joe Biden to focus on Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.
The letter, led by Representative Joe Wilson, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s national-security task force, cited the test of satellite launch vehicles using new technology as a “particular reason for concern.”
The group of American lawmakers warned that the recent launches, which took place last year, could “potentially put U.S. allies in Europe as well as the U.S. homeland in range.”
They also mentioned what they called foreign networks that support the development of Iran’s missile programs, saying, “The Trump administration routinely sanctioned these networks which supported Iran’s missile and military programs as well as those of its proxies, whereas your administration has been lagging in this area.”
The letter comes as negotiations are ongoing in Vienna to bring the U.S. back into the Iran agreement of 2015, three years after it unilaterally left the deal and began to slap illegal sanctions on Tehran.
Iran has on countless occasions rejected calls to hold talks over its missile program or claims by U.S. officials that the Vienna talks aim to “lengthen and strengthen” the nuclear deal.
Last month, U.S. special envoy for Iran Robert Malley said Iran’s ballistic missiles were not a subject of the Vienna talks, but added that “it is our objective to get at some point a discussion, a regional discussion that will deal with all these other issues.”
Although faced with severe U.S. sanctions targeting its military, Iran has successfully advanced its defense program in recent years, achieving what the head of the U.S. Central Command calls “overmatch” – a level of military capability in which a country is extremely difficult to be defeated.
Iran “can strike effectively across the breadth and depth of the Middle East. They could strike with accuracy, and they could strike with volume,” The New Yorker quoted General Frank McKenzie as saying back in December last year.
“Iran’s strategic capacity is now enormous,” it further quoted McKenzie as saying. “They’ve got overmatch in the theater — the ability to overwhelm.”
Despite the commotion created over its nuclear and missile programs, Iran has made clear that its nuclear program is not intended to build nuclear weapons and that its missile program is defensive in nature.
Iran signed the deal to reassure the world of the peaceful nature of its nuclear work.
The Islamic Republic keeps reassuring its neighbors that it wants peace and stability in the region and friendly ties with neighbors. The country has also voiced willingness to provide advanced scientific and military technologies to friendly and neighborly states.