Navy Commander: Iran Never Neglects Readiness for War

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari stressed enemies' helplessness in staging war against Iran, but meantime said that the country is always ready to give a crushing response to any possible aggression by ill-wishers.

"The Islamic Republic enjoys such a position in the world that no country thinks of aggression against it since Iran's combatants have multiplied the Islamic Iran's power by their presence in different arenas," Sayyari said on Saturday.

"It is true that the enemy has become disappointed at waging (conventional) war against us and has, thus, resorted to the highly dangerous method of soft war, but this doesn’t mean that we overlook readiness for (conventional, physical) war even for one moment," he added.

In relevant remarks in July, Sayyari underlined the high preparedness of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces, saying that Iran’s defense capabilities and readiness have pushed the enemy to move towards soft war.

“The enemy has resorted to cultural onslaught, cultural NATO and soft war due to prowess of Iran’s Armed Forces,” he said.

He, however, stressed that the enemy has not forgotten battlefield war, although it has focused on soft war.

Rear Admiral Sayyari noted that a total of 3,000 satellite networks are broadcasting programs and propagating against the Islamic Republic.

“The enemy is trying to control the people’s thoughts and change their beliefs in its soft war against Iran,” he added.

Rear Admiral Sayyari pointed to Satellite television channels, Internet, movies and media as tools of soft war, and said the Iranian youths are the target of the enemy's soft war operations.

"If not foiled, the negative consequences of the enemy's soft onslaught cannot be compensated," he warned.

Earlier this year, Commander of Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi called on the nation to keep vigilant against the conspiracies and plots hatched by the enemies, reminding the complex nature and complicated aspects of soft war.

“The enemy has come to full-scale soft war against Iran,” Brigadier General Naqdi said in January.

Addressing a group of Basij members at the time, the commander of Basij force said enemies try to employ all facilities such as satellite and facebook and cultural inroad to deviate Iranian youth from path of the Islamic Revolution.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has also on many occasions warned about the enemies’ soft-war plots to undermine Iran's resolve towards progress.

In November 2009, he underlined the necessity for proper measures to repel enemy's soft war against Iran.

“Today, the main priority of the country is to confront (enemy’s) soft warfare which is aimed at creating doubt, discord and pessimism among the masses of the people,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a large and fervent congregation of Basij forces at the time.