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Introduction — July 20, 2017

Iranian Zolfaghar missile launch targeting ISIL/ISIS/Daesh in Syria. Click to enlarge

Iranian Zolfaghar missile launch targeting ISIL/ISIS/Daesh in Syria. Click to enlarge

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps has warned that America could pay dearly should it proceed with plans to impose further sanctions on Iran.
Despite Iran having kept its part of the nuclear deal the Trump administration has announced that new sanctions will be imposed on the Islamic Republic. In particular these will target Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards Corps and individuals and entities thought to be aiding the country’s missile development program.
In response the IRGC commander Major General Ali Jafari has warned America to close any U.S. military base within 1,000 kilometres of Iran. The implications are clear: should the U.S. go-ahead and impose the new sanctions any U.S. base within a radius of one thousand kilometres will be targeted by Iran’s missiles.
This is no empty threat. Only last month Iran launched a missile strike on ISIL (otherwise known as Islamic State, ISIS or Daesh) forces based in eastern Syria. The missile strike was in retaliation for two terror attacks in Tehran earlier in June.
If nothing else the strikes proved that Iran’s missiles now have the necessary range and accuracy to carry out Major General Jafari’s threat. Given that the U.S. has military bases in Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and neighbouring Afghanistan and these are home to at least 50,000 service personnel at any given time, then they are all within range of Iran’s missiles.
Of course that doesn’t mean that Iran is going to launch missile strikes just yet and nor are U.S. forces likely to vacate those military bases but it does underline decades of unresolved tensions between Washington and Tehran. It also means that US military planers will now have to consider introducing reinforced bunkers and hardened aircraft canopies at the aforementioned sites.
At the time of the missile strike on the Islamic State group in Syria, Iran had said that it was part of a wider warning for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Major General Ali Jafari’s statement now underlines that warning. Ed.

Top Commander: US Needs to Leaves Bases in Region If Sanctions IRGC

Fars News — July 20, 2017

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari warned the US that would have to evacuate military bases in the region if it insists on imposing sanctions on the IRGC.

“If the US wants to pursue imposing sanctions on the IRGC and defense issues, it should first close its regional military bases in a radius of 1,000 km away from Iran, and know that it should correct its miscalculation at a high price,” General Jafari said, addressing the senior IRGC commanders in the Northeastern city of Mashhad on Wednesday.

He referred to the enemy’s fresh sanctions against the IRGC as attempts to pit people against each other and target the country’s national interests, and said that the Iranian people have prepared themselves to stand against the US economic pressures.

Iranians are now well aware of the US tricks in Iran nuclear deal also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and they are waiting for the Iranian diplomats’ powerful reaction, General Jafari underscored.

He also underlined the high importance of Iran’s missile power to strengthen the country’s deterrence power, and said, “Iran’s missile power is non-negotiable and we will defend it.”

The number of those precision-guided missiles used in the IRGC’s latest strike on the ISIL positions in Syria is increasing now, the IRGC top commander said.

The IRGC launched 6 missile strikes at ISIL centers in Syria’s Deir Ezzur in retaliation for the June 7 twin ISIL terrorist attacks in Tehran which killed 18 people, it said in a statement issued on June 18, adding that the mid-range ballistic missiles were fired from bases in Western Iran and flew through Iraq’s airspace before hitting the targets in Syria and killing tens of ISIL militants and their commanders.

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