Iran military chiefs warn of renewed conflict with Israel
Iran’s top military commanders warned on Thursday that the armed forces are ready to resume fighting in the wake of the 12-day war with Israel amid a ceasefire brokered by the US.
Iran’s top military commanders warned on Thursday that the armed forces are ready to resume fighting in the wake of the 12-day war with Israel amid a ceasefire brokered by the US.
“Our forces are fully prepared to resume combat from exactly where it stopped,” said Major General Mohammad Pakpour, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), during a meeting in Tehran with Major General Amir Hatami, commander-in-chief of Iran’s army.
“The aggressors will not be spared,” he added. “The will and resolve of the Iranian people and our armed forces have triumphed. We stand together.”
Earlier in the day, a senior Iranian lawmaker also warned that Iran would respond to any future Israeli attack with a blow more severe than last month’s conflict.
“If the Zionist regime again makes the mistake of acting against the Islamic Republic, it will be hit even harder than it was in Operation True Promise 3,” Esmail Kowsari, a member of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, told reporters i Tehran.
Hatami said Iran would not wait for external threats to materialize. Last week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the war with Iran "is not over".
“The Zionist regime is a danger to regional and global peace,” Hatami said. “If given the opportunity, it would strike others in the region. We will not allow it.”
The commanders’ statements came amid Israel’s airstrikes on Damascus. Israel wants a demilitarised buffer zone in southern Syria.
US President Donald Trump expects Iran to return to nuclear negotiations, saying that diplomacy is in Tehran's best interest, according to the State Department Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
“I know that he expects them to begin to negotiate because that's in their best interest,” Bruce said in an interview with Fox News. “He has believed and continues to believe that diplomacy will work here."
Trump has warned that if Iran's nuclear program continues to pose a threat, he would "absolutely" consider more strikes, "without a question".
Iran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful.
