Sputnik
The latest escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis into another shooting war has given rise to fears that Israeli arch-enemy Iran may be pulled into the conflict. But while Tehran has expressed willingness to back “any political solution” to stop the bloodshed, some Israeli and US officials have floated plans to target the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian Army’s Ground Force “has its finger on the trigger” and is ready to respond to “any threat, at any point, of any scale and in the shortest time possible,” Ground Force Commander Kioumars Heydari has announced.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday on the second and final day of the snap Eqtedar 1402 (lit. ‘Power 2023’) exercises, Heydari said the drills were “a training exercise to respond to unexpected threats,” and meant to convey “a message of peace and friendship, especially to neighboring countries, and project the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran to its enemies.”
Friday and Saturday’s drills, held across Isfahan province in central Iran, saw the participation from all units of the Army Ground Force command, and involved large-scale tank maneuvers and the use of a range of new and upgraded equipment and weaponry, including the Shafaq, Almas and Dehlaviyeh ground-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles. The missiles were fired at targets between 8 and 20 km away.
The exercises also saw nighttime sorties overnight Friday into Saturday involving helicopters equipped with night-vision, radar jamming and long-range missiles.
The dramatic regional escalation in the Middle East following Hamas’s surprise October 7 raids into southern Israel, and the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, have centered global attention on Iran’s response to the crisis, given the two countries’ decades-old animosity.
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