Sputnik
The Islamic Republic has amassed an array of homegrown defense systems to monitor and secure the waters off its home shores, including advanced long-range cruise missiles, radar and sonar equipment. Last month, the Iranian Navy announced that it had forced a US ballistic missile submarine to surface as it tried to sneak through the Hormuz Strait.
The United States is “damn wrong” to operate warships in the Persian Gulf, and Iran has “no alternative but to stand and resist” or face the crushing hegemony of outside powers, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri has said.
“You are damn wrong to be present in our region,” the commander said, speaking an official ceremony in Dezful, southwestern Iran this week commemorating the city’s resistance during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. “The security of the Persian Gulf is assured by Iran and the countries of the region, and there is no need for you or any other country to be present.”
Recalling the days before the Revolution of 1979, when America and Britain treated Iran like “their colony,” Tangsiri stated that “the spirit and motivation of resistance imbued the Iranian nation with dignity and honor, and now the Iranian nation is standing on its own two feet, with the Resistance upsetting the equations” of the enemy powers that be.
The commander also commented on the significance of media in the confrontation between Iran and the US, pointing out that a Fox News reporter can be embedded on a US warship at sea and quickly transmit reports skewed in Washington’s favor. Accordingly, he said, while the IRGC Navy and the military work to “ensure the security of the Persian Gulf, the media must participate in this security and reflect the capabilities of the IRGC Navy and the Army so that the world understands that the security of the Persian Gulf does not require foreigners.”
Tangsiri’s comments this week echo sentiments he expressed in late April, when he emphasized the IRGC Navy’s readiness to “protect and safeguard” the Persian Gulf from the United States and its Israeli allies, and warned of the dangers to the local ecosystem posed by US nuclear-powered warships operating in the region.
Earlier this month, the commander stressed that the IRGC Navy closely monitors all “enemy vessels” operating in the Gulf, and that its capabilities are growing “day by day.”
Iran’s homegrown technological innovations and military-industrial base know-how have witnessed dramatic advancements in recent years, with the Middle Eastern nation developing everything from advanced long-range ballistic and cruise missiles and drones to radar, sonar anti-air and anti-ship defense systems capable of tracking the latest US weapons systems.
Last month, Iran’s Navy reported on a successful operation to force a US Ohio-class ballistic missile sub to surface as it attempted to quietly transit through the Hormuz Strait underwater. The Pentagon denied that its sub was forced to the surface, accusing Tehran of engaging in “disinformation that destabilizes the region.”
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