Arash Aramesh

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Press TV July 26 that the United States and Israel were planning to start new wars in the region and predicted an attack on “at least two countries in the region within the next three months.”

President Ahmadinejad criticized the new round of sanctions imposed by the European Union and said the United States and the EU were only after saving Israel by levying such sanctions. He added, “First of all, they want to hamper Iran’s progress and development since they are opposed to our growth, and secondly they want to save the Zionist regime because it has reached a dead-end and the Zionists believe they can be saved through a military confrontation.”

Ahmadinejad may have also been reacting to a recent proposal put forth by Republicans in the US House of Representatives, HR 1553, allowing Israel to take any action to protect itself from threats.

Senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commanders, however, seemed to be less alarmist. Brig Gen Hossein Salami, deputy commander of IRGC forces, told Sepah News, IRGC’s official website, that the Guards were fully aware of the enemy’s strategies. He downplayed the strength of the US military and said, “The US military was created as a response to a single threat, and that was the USSR. That is why in the new era, and due to lack of flexibility, we can see signs of US military defeat.”

Elaborating on the issue of military strikes or crippling sanctions against the IRGC, Gen Salami added, “We always thought [predicted and made plans accordingly] that all doors would one day be closed to us. We planned for the worst case scenario. The IRGC planned on the fact that there may not be a reliable ally for the Islamic Republic in the world. Thanks to the Almighty, our country is not small and we do not need to necessarily rely on others.”

In addition to Brig Gen Salami, another high-ranking IRGC commander discounted the possibility of a US attack. Brig Gen Masoud Jazaeri, deputy chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for culture and propaganda, told Sepah News that “Recent moves made by the US are nothing but political bluffs.”

Gen Jazaeri added, “Recent military moves by the US, Israel, and a number of European countries is (sic) nothing new in the waters of the region and we have seen this many times in the past.” He asserted, “Iran is not worried about declining powers.”

The facts on the ground, however, tell a different story. Iran is preparing for a week-long air defense exercise in the fall. Senior air force commanders have announced that this exercise would take place in Iran’s western provinces, the closest to Israel. In the past two years, Iran has conducted a large number of military exercises, most of which have been air defense or naval combat preparedness in the Persian Gulf.