Iran considers Syria, Iraq as its ‘strategic depth’: IRGC deputy cmdr.

TEHRAN–IRGC deputy commander says that Iran military advisors are in Syria and Iraq because those two countries are Iran’s strategic depth, adding Iran developed its missile program in response to foreign threats.

IRGC Deputy Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami said on Iranian state TV on Saturday evening that Iran developed its defense missiles system in response to the enemies’ threats as they have never taken a military option against Iran off the table, according to the Mehr News Agancy.

“We were aware of the capabilities of the enemy’s navy strength, so we had to look for an asymmetric defense system against it,” said Brigadier General Salami adding “for example the enemy uses aircraft carrier and we could not build an aircraft carrier as it costs too much, so we decided to increase the precision of our ballistic missiles to confront the power of those aircraft carriers.”

He went on to add that Iran’s strategy to develop high-precision ballistic missiles has been fruitful in defeating the enemy’s massive power.

Elsewhere in his remarks, IRGC deputy commander compared Iran’s current defense system with the country’s defense power before the Islamic revolution saying “the place the Islamic establishment has in the international arena and the level of its independence determine the situation of its defense system.”

“[Before the revolution], all our [military] equipment, such as artillery, tanks, anti-tank missiles, naval and airborne power, were purchased from Western and American powers, and we were only consumer of their products in our country. Billions of dollars were paid for equipment coming from Western countries and the United States, and we were just a consumer of their products,” Brigadier General Salami noted, adding that Iran now produces all its defense equipment inside the country.

Later in his comments, he hailed Iran’s valuable achievements in the defense field saying “we engineer US-made drone RQ170,” adding that “our drones which can fly and carry out military operations thousands of kilometers away from their bases have astonished the high-ranking officials of big powers.”

IRGC deputy commander highlighted that “our radars today have technologies that only few countries in the world use them,” adding that all the military achievements are for defensive purposes.

Regarding the Iranian underground missile bases, Brigadier General Salami said “the missile cities are in safe places against enemy’s attacks.”

With regard to Iran’s military presence in Iraq and Syria, IRGC deputy commander said that those countries are ‘our [Iran’s] strategic depth’ and their security is Iran’s security.

M.Wassof