Ex-IRG Chief: Iran Can Take US, ‘Israel’ at Once

By Staff, Agencies

A former chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards [IRG] Major General Mohsen Rezaei confirmed that Iran demonstrated during last month’s retaliation against "Israeli" and US aggression that it is capable of effectively challenging both Washington and "Tel Aviv" at the same time.

Rezaei, who took on the IRG’s commandership following the victory of the country’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, made the remarks during a televised interview on Tuesday.

The successful reprisal, he said, harked back to the famous words, “I am the one who can challenge you” that was once uttered by Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Al’-Quds Force.

“This was truly proven” throughout the Iranian counterstrikes, said Rezaei, who is also on the Expediency Discernment Council that advises The Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei.

Rezaei underlined that “no country dares carry out such strike,” referring to the counteroffensive targeting al-Udeid.

“Not even such a country as China makes so bold as to carry out such a strike.”

The official, meanwhile, dismissed American officials’ claims that only one of the Iranian projectiles had hit the facility, citing Qatari sources as reporting between five to six blasts at the site.

The overall performance, he said, amounted to “a show of strength,” besides leading to “a rise in Iran’s stature in the region."

"In a sense, we have begun the ascent towards the pinnacle. But the important thing is not to stop, even though 'Israel' and the US are trying hard to hold us back."

The retaliation further proved to many regional states that the Islamic Republic was “dependable.”

Rezaei, additionally, enumerated the multiple instances of failure that had been experienced by the US and "Israel" during their combined aggression.

He noted how the duo had spent an entire year planning out their design for the aggression, and had even practiced carrying it out in such places as Greece and the Mediterranean Sea.

They, however, abjectly failed in their most important objective that had featured harming the Islamic Republic’s Leader or the members of its Supreme National Security Council, the former commander said.

Washington and "Tel Aviv" also stopped short of their subsequent goals, namely creating chaos in the country, having counterrevolutionary elements enter the capital Tehran, and bringing about the country’s disintegration.

Rezaei identified the last objective that "Israel" and the US had failed to realize as bringing the Islamic Republic’s airspace under their control.

The official further noted how the war’s $20-billion price tag for "Israel" and the depletion of American interceptor missile arsenals that the US had spent no less than two years to manufacture at astronomical costs, as other instances of the duo’s failures.

The adversaries, however, are unwilling to confess to their frustrations, he said, while noting, "All of 'Israel’s' defeats equate to our victories, including the costs the entity has borne, the collapse of its security, and its failure to achieve its objectives."