Iran’s military ‘ready to respond to US pressure’

THE top commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has said his country is fully prepared to respond to any US military pressure as tensions between Tehran and Washington remain high in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

General Hossein Salami spoke at a ceremony at Tehran University commemorating the upcoming one-year anniversary of the US drone strike in Baghdad that killed Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani, who headed the expeditionary Quds force, on January 3 2020.

At the time, Iran retaliated by launching a ballistic missile strike on a military base in Iraq that caused brain concussion injuries to about 100 US troops.

Washington and Tehran came dangerously close to war as the crisis escalated. “Today, we have no problem, concern or apprehension toward encountering any powers. We will give our final words to our enemies on the battlefield,” Gen Salami said, without mentioning the US directly.

Several top Iranian officials, along with Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese allies and members of Gen Soleimani’s family, attended.

Gen Soleimani’s replacement, Brigadier General Esmail Ghaani, said at the ceremony that Iran was not afraid of confronting “powers”, again without naming the US.

The head of Iran’s judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, said all those who had a role in Gen Soleimani’s killing will not be able to “escape law and justice”, even if they were a US president. Iran’s Foreign Ministry tweeted that Iran will not rest until perpetrators of Gen Soleimani’s killing are brought to justice.

“By committing a craven act of terror against Gen Soleimani, the US violated int’l law & the UN Charter in a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” said a post on the ministry’s Twitter account.

“The US’ lawlessness in full show. £Iran won’t rest until bringing those responsible to justice.”

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Washington would bear responsibility for the consequences of any possible “adventure” in the region.

His comments came during a call with his Kuwaiti counterpart, according to the ministry’s website.

Already, America has conducted B-52 bomber flyovers and sent a nuclear submarine into the Persian

Gulf over what Trump administration officials describe as the possibility of an Iranian attack on the anniversary of Gen Soleimani’s killing.

Strategic calculations on both sides have been complicated by the political transition in Washington to president-elect Joe Biden’s administration, which may seek new paths in dealing with Iran.

■ Meanwhile an Iraqi explosives handling team is working to neutralise a “large” mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew, authorities said. It came after two security firms said sailors feared they had found a limpet mine on the MT Pola, a Liberianflagged tanker in the waters off the Iraqi port of Basra. The Iraqi statement said the mine had been attached to a tanker rented from Iraq’s Oil Marketing Company SOMO that was refuelling another vessel.