Iranian Guards Commanders Resume Threats Against the US

Just two days before the next round of marathon talks between Tehran and the P5+1 group of world powers in Geneva, commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and para-military Basij mobilization force again embarked on aggressive and confrontational language against the United States. The top Guards commander spoke of Washington’s fears in attacking Iran and claimed that the US would suffer the greatest historic harm if it made the smallest mistake regarding Iran. At the same time, the commander of the Basij asserted that mistrust of the US would not be resolved with the upcoming talks.

Two months since Hassan Rouhani and Barack Obama had an unprecedented telephone conversation and a week after the foreign ministers of Iran and the US held a five-hour talk on the nuclear issue, the military commanders of the Islamic republic of Iran continue to stress on aggressive and threatening language against Washington and the West. Leading such language is general Mohammad Ali Jaafari, the IRGC commander who yesterday said, “The Americans are lying when they say that the military option is on the table.”

US President Barack Obama has in recent years repeatedly said that his preference and priority is to solve the nuclear impasse with Tehran through diplomacy and peaceful means. He has also said that should diplomacy completely fail, he would use military force to contain Iran’s nuclear program if necessary. But this is something that Iran’s military commanders seem not to believe. “They are afraid of attacking Iran more than any country and certainly such an idea does not even exist in the minds of American statesmen but still they say this for political purposes,” Jaafari said.

“Between 2003 and 2007 the Americans surrounded Iran and wanted to directly attack Iran. But when they saw that the Iranian nation follows the orders of the supreme leader, they got scared and they fled,” Jaafari continued.

Some observers have said that US’s occupation of Iraq played a determinant role in Iran’s decision to temporarily suspend its nuclear program during Mohammad Khatami’s presidency. At that time, George Bush labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea the Axis of Evil and the leaders of the Islamic republic feared that the US military had set its eyes on Iran as its next military target.

American Targets In Crosshairs of Iran

General Jazaeri, the head of the propaganda apparatus of the military last week had made similar assertions. “The American contention of a military option against Iran is a bluff. They know the military capabilities of the Islamic republic,” he said.

While the governments in Tehran and Washington are working to build trust and relations between the two countries, the defense deputy of Iran’s joint military command openly threatens the United States and its allies in the region. “The slightest military mistake over Iran will cause the Americans to suffer the largest historic damage. Many of America’s assets in the region and those of its allies and beyond are within the firepower of Iran,” he claimed.

Threats against Iran’s neighbors comes at a time when just last week Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced through Iran’s national television that the priority of the current Iranian administration was to protect the security of Iran’s neighbors.

Observers have interpreted these threatening and aggressive remarks by Iran’s military officers to indicate that they desire to disrupt the diplomatic exchanges that are underway between Iran and the US over the nuclear issue. Even Rouhani’s defense minister, who also happens to be a senior commander in the Ghods Force that has armed units in Lebanon, told reporters last week that American and Israeli threats against Iran were not serious and added, “Don’t take them seriously.”

Naghdi: The Battle Will Continue Till the Elimination of Arrogance

The commander of the Basij force, Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, who is considered an extreme hawk in Iran’s military establishment also spoke about the “Basij mentality” in the Middle East and North America. “If we see resistance in Lebanon, Palestine and victories in Syria they are inspired by the actions of Basij. The Basij mentality has even infiltrated into the US itself and we see that the 99 percent movement of the American people has entered the scene,” he retorted.

Naghdi’s reference is to the Occupy Wall Street movement which was active in large US cities last year. He did not of course explain what was the relationship between American leftist student and intellectual groups and the Basij paramilitary force.

Speaking at a news conference during Basij week, Naghdi also said, “Our battle with arrogance (a term Iranian officials use for the United States) shall continue till the elimination of arrogance. Our struggle with American is not something that will be solved through trust or diplomatic talks.”

He termed talks and a deal with the US as a “sellout” and said if it happened it would only make economic conditions for Iran worse. He added that “those who had become fatigued by the Islamic revolution advocated compromise and relations with superpowers and arrogance.” After Iran’s leader ayatollah Khamenei two months ago spoke of “heroic flexibility’ in diplomacy Naghdi and his colleagues ran into problems in their attacks on the US and the talks between the two countries. Khamenei himself had changed his confrontational stance from the time when he said, “I am a revolutionary not a diplomat” to speaking of flexibility.

Iran’s new president has been calling for dialog with the international community and has presented that as one of his core activities. He did this even during his election campaign, contrary to the message of hardline candidate Saeed Jalili who advocated “confrontation” with the West, rather than “relations.”

Last week Tehran’s temporary Friday prayer imam Ahmad Khatami who is a known extremist hardliner spoke at imam Reza mosque in a Guards base and told the military men, “Our enemies do not understand the language of negotiations, in other words they are savages. We are witnessing the crimes they are committing in Syria. We are facing an enemy that only understands the language of brutal force.” He continued, “The 2,000 kilometer missile of the Guards is their eternal fear and the announcement of the leader that if they make a mistake, we will flatten Tel Aviv and Haifa.”