Iran’s Guard says ready for ‘any scenario’ amid standoff with US
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard is ready for combat and “any scenario,” its chief commander said Saturday, as the country’s nuclear deal with world powers collapses and the U.S. alleged Iran was behind a weekend attack on major oil sites in Saudi Arabia that shook global energy markets.
Iran has denied involvement in the Sept. 14 attack that was initially claimed by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in New York for the U.N. meetings, has warned that any retaliatory strike on Iran by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will result in “an all-out war.”
On Saturday, Gen. Hossein Salami, at a ceremony displaying pieces of an American drone Iran shot down in June, said that his forces have carried out “war exercises and are ready for any scenario.”
He added: “If anyone crosses our borders, we will hit them.”
Zarif claimed in a tweet that Saudi Arabia does not believe its own allegations that Iran was responsible for the attack on Saudi oil sites.
“It is clear that even the Saudis themselves don’t believe the fiction of Iranian involvement”, Zarif said, pointing to what he described as a Saudi retaliatory attack on Houthi forces in southwestern Yemen.
Saudi Arabia has been at war with the Houthi rebels since March 2015. The U.N., Gulf Arab nations and the U.S. accuse Iran of supplying arms to the Houthis, something Tehran denies. The Houthis announced Friday they are halting all drone and ballistic missile attacks on Saudi Arabia – a move welcomed Saturday by Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths. If implemented in good faith, he said, a halt to hostile military acts against the Saudis “could send a powerful message of the will to end the war.”
Griffiths said in a statement that he also welcomed the Houthis’ “expression of further openness” to implementing a prisoner exchange agreement, “and the desire for a political solution to end the conflict.”
He stressed “the importance of taking advantage of this opportunity and moving forward with all necessary steps to reduce violence, military escalation and unhelpful rhetoric.”
Analysts say the missiles used in the Sept. 14 assault wouldn’t have enough range to reach the oil sites in eastern Saudi Arabia from impoverished Yemen. The missiles and drones used resembled Iranian-made weapons, although analysts say more study is needed to definitively link them to Iran.
Salami added that Iran does not want to start a conflict, but appeared to warn the U.S. and Saudi Arabia that Iran is prepared.
“We won’t stop until the destruction of any aggressor. And we will not leave any secure spot,” he said. “Do not miscalculate and do not make a mistake.”
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs criticized Iran.
“The more engagement you have with Iran the more Iran believes its aggressive behavior is acceptable in the world, and that is not acceptable, so those issues need to be considered,” Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference.