IRGC Chief Visits Border With Azerbaijan

Date: 26 October 2020 - 21:43

News ID: ۸۴۱۹۵

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Hussein Salami on Monday visited Iran’s northwestern border areas near a battlefield where Azerbaijani and Armenian forces have been exchanging fire in recent weeks.
The IRGC commander was not in uniform when he visited the northwestern border region close to the Aras river, Tasnim news agency reported.
The border area in Khoda Afarin county is the closest point to Azerbaijan which took it back from Armenian forces after 28 years of occupation last week.
After monitoring the latest developments in the region, General Salami issued necessary orders to step up security at the border areas.
Dozens of stray rocket shells fired by Armenian and Azerbaijan forces have landed in the Iranian territory in recent weeks, prompting Tehran to seriously warn the warning sides to stop them.
The Azeri president on Friday assured that there will be "no more inconvenience” along the two countries’ border, after his forces liberated the entire border with Iran.
Speaking in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, Ilham Aliyev said his country has "cleaned completely the Azerbaijani-Iranian border from Armenian occupants.”
"There will be no more inconvenience for our brothers across river of Araz (Aras) in Iran,” Aliyev said.
"As far as I know, Iranian leaders also talk to the Armenian side. Because the clashes were taking place just by the river Araz, close to the border with Iran, and by accident, some of the weapons crossed the border,” he said.
"But today we announced that we cleaned completely the Azerbaijani-Iranian border from Armenian occupants. Therefore, no more clashes take place there, and there will be no more inconvenience for our brothers across the river,” the Azeri leader added.
On Sunday, IRGC Ground Force commander Brigadier General Muhammad Pakpoor said more units may be deployed to Iran’s northwestern border amid the fighting.
The IRGC Ground Force deployed a mechanized brigade to the border on Sunday during a tactical drill.
The Army’s Public Relations Office released a statement, saying the drills fielded the force’s offensive mobile brigades that have been developed from former mechanized infantry brigades under the Ground Force’s "new structure.”