Iran in Better Military Situation than Ever: Adviser


Iran in Better Military Situation than Ever: Adviser

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A defense adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei dismissed claims by the Trump administration that Iran has slashed its defense budgets as a result of Washington's “maximum pressure” strategy against Tehran.

Tehran has not “made any cuts to the budgets of our military organizations,” Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan told the Financial Times in an interview on Monday.

“Militarily, today we are definitely in a better situation than three years ago when Mr. Trump came to power, in all aspects — from staff, organization to equipment. And we will be better in five years if Mr Trump is re-elected,” he added.

 “In the region, since the formation of Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) and the rise of insecurity, we have used all our capacity to organize, train and consult our allies.”

Gen. Dehqan further referred to Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran and said the US strategy “is costing them and it costs us. But who is the winner now? Today, we believe our influence in the region has increased despite all this pressure. We will never abandon our regional allies . . . We are not players, we are revolutionaries.”

Gen Dehghan said “complementary blows will happen over time” with the aim of driving US forces from the region. But he added that Tehran would not stage attacks against the US “unless America does (against Iran)”.

He reiterated that Iran did not want a “full-blown war” with the US, but said negotiations would be pointless.

“The US thinks we are in a weak position and need to negotiate,” he said. “The US wants to negotiate with us to say ‘why do you have missiles, why are you present in the region and why do you have military capabilities?’ What kind of negotiations are these?”

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