TEHRAN, Sept 11— The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Tuesday that the country has identified US weak points in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The comments by Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, appointed head of the elite force by the leader of Islamic Revolution just 10 days ago, come amid mounting tensions between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s peaceful nuclear drive and its role in Iraq.
“The Revolutionary Guards have identified all the weak points of the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan and based on this have consolidated the defensive capabilities of the country,” Brigadier General Jaafari said.
“And if the enemy wants to take any impudent action the Islamic republic will for sure give a decisive response,” he said, according to state broadcasting.
Tehran has always warned of a tough response to any aggression while insisting it would never initiate an attack.
Brigadier General Rahim Yahya Safavi, Jaafari’s predecessor and now special military advisor to the leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had warned last week that the United States has not realized how at risk its troops were.
Iran has strongly insisted on its nuclear rights and vehemently denies seeking nuclear weapons and also rejects charges regarding its interference in Iraq, saying it fully supports the Baghdad government’s drive to restore security in the war-torn country.
Off the subject of Iran,
Don’t know if you’ve had a chance to check out today’s democracynow but I thought that documentary by Rick Rowley and the following interview with David Cole were really great. Highly recommended.
VS, I know you wrote a great essay 2 months ago about a U.S.-Iran war scenario. But when I hear about plans to destroy 10,000 targets all at once, I wonder what would be the launching pad for such a strike?
It doesn’t seem any of the Gulf nations (Qatar, Kuwait Saudi, etc) are eager to host a U.S. strike. I don’t think Iraq is stable enough to be a spring board. Are 3 aircraft carriers plus some destroyers enough for a crippling strike, that denies any means of retaliation?
There was talk in the media a year ago about refitting minute man rockets with conventional warheads but that seems like a very expensive way to deliver TNT.
Thanx
Did you see this VS?
http://palestinianpundit.blogspot.com/2007/09/sources-confirm-israeli-airstrike-on.html#links
yes I did. I almost posted a special piece on the rather hilarious statement about the Israelis hitting nothing, being chased out by the Syrian air defenses, dropping tanks over Turkey, creating an international incident and hitting EXACTLY NOTHING.
Jeez – how did the IDF ever become so clueless?!
@lysander: The US does have plenty of air assets it can use to strike 10’000 targets over time, but it has exactly nothing to prevent an Iranian retaliation. The fact that the Iranians are clearly showing that in case of attack they will go after US forces just goes to show that everybody knows about this huge vulnerability except the US public.
Perhaps that’s why a military base at the Iran-Iraq border is in the works while British soldiers have been sent to patrol the border with Iran.
Furgaia,
There’s another one of those promised up north, using U.S. troops.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070910/ts_nm/iran_iraq_base_dc_2;_ylt=AtDtwthL1f6K8MKo9Z2dAGBX6GMA
Talk about staked-out goats waiting for an “accident.” Gleiwitz incident, anyone?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident