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A prominent Iranian official is warning the West that his nation has 9 million troops who could be deployed to battle lines within 10 days.
The provocative statement comes from Mohsen Rafighdoost, a minister for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the 1980-1988 war with Iraq.
He now heads the Noor Foundation and recently delivered a speech to a political circle in Tehran.
His statement, made Sept. 25 in a speech to a Tehran political circle, were captured by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Rafighdoost said: “The factor that led to our victory in the [Iran-Iraq] War is [the same] factor that led to our victory in the [Islamic] Revolution. The imam [Khomeini], in France, would order a parade [to be held in Iran], and the people would hold a parade, even in remote villages.”
“During the eight years of the imposed war, not only was not one inch of Iranian land surrendered to the enemy, but we also acquired deterrent capability. I believe that as long as the Islamic Revolution stands against the Western and Eastern camps, we will be under military sanctions. We must never think that the world will provide us with military aid. Thanks to the war and its martyrs, Iran currently has deterrent capability. After a while, the imam [Khomeini] replaced the call of ‘war, war to victory’ with ‘war, war until the fitna is removed.’ At the time, we understood this call as meaning that ‘we must be so strong that the enemy will not even think of a military strike against Iran,'” he said.
He continued: “Today, Iran has deterrent capability. In recent years, the enemies have spoken of the option [of a military strike against Iran] as being on the table, but that was a lie. [Our] air force and navy are good, but it is [our] ground forces that finish the war. The IRGC’s ground forces are perhaps five times better than the American army.
“Despite all the enemy media and cultural propaganda against us, if America wants to try its luck against us, [it should know that] we are completely capable of mobilizing nine million fighters [against it] … on the [battle]front in under 10 days.”
He also took up, again, the issue of Iran’s hatred of Israel.
“We have warehouses full [of missiles] in Tehran, Zanjan [in northwest Iran] and Oshnavieh [in Western Azerbaijan Province in northwest Iran] that can strike Tel Aviv. If only a single [Israeli] shell would strike anywhere in this country, so that we can flatten Tel Aviv,” the MEMRI reported quoted him saying.
“In accordance with his secondary plan, the Imam [Khomeini] created Hizbullah in Lebanon. This plan was [aimed at] Islamizing other countries. Today, in the era of the Leader [Khamenei, Hizbullah] has become a supreme force in the region.
“Despite all the criminal [plots], Iranian security forces grow stronger every day. Some of the statements being put out there are made out of lack of awareness, and anyone who makes them is ignorant.”
He said the “secret to victory lies in wise and complete obedience to the leader [Khamenei].”
“During the time of the imam [Khomeini], we obeyed him, and today we obey the leader [Khamenei].”
The comments come in an atmosphere in which Iran believes it has scored a major coup over the West by getting the Obama administration to agree to its nuclear plans.
Even the White House admits its “historic deal” with Iran regarding its aggressive nuclear program means the rogue Islamic state would be able to “gather enough fissile material to build a weapon” in 12 months, instead of only two or three.
The Obama administration argues the agreement establishes monitoring that enables the West to detect violations and restore sanctions if necessary.
“It now seems certain that there really was no deal: Obama merely danced around the nuclear issue,” said Taheri in a column in the New York Post.
“What he wanted was a smoke screen behind which he could help the Iranian theocracy negotiate its way out of a severe political and economic crisis in exchange for endorsing Obama’s claim that he had prevented ‘yet another war’ in the Middle East. He wanted a photo op with another long-time enemy of the U.S., another Nobel Prize – or at least justification for the one he already has,” said Taheri, chairman of the Gatestone Institute.
“He failed on all fronts.”
Taheri quoted Ali-Akbar Saleh, the chief of the Iran Atomic Energy Agency, who said Iran’s nuclear program “remains intact.”
“We have done nothing that could not be undone with the turn of a screw.”
Added Taheri, “To hammer in the point further, Iran recently tested a new generation of missiles which, because of their long range and small payload, only make sense if they carry nuclear warheads.
“In exchange for vague promises, Obama has solved the Islamic Republic’s cash-flow problem by releasing unknown quantities of frozen assets. At least some of those assets took the form of hard cash flown to Tehran via Beirut in sealed safes, all in secret. Part of the cash, the Wall Street Journal revealed, appears to have been $400 million for the release of four hostages held by the mullahs – disregarding United States policy not to pay ransom. Iran wasted no time seizing six new American hostages.”
Taheri pointed out that “since its inception in 1979, the mullahs’ regime has not spent a single day without at least one American hostage.”
He said Obama’s delivery of $1.7 billion in assets “frozen under President Jimmy Carter” probably went “straight into the budget of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard to help it upgrade its adventures.”
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