Tehran, May 16: Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) chief has warned on Wednesday Tehran was on a brink of a “full-scale confrontation with the enemy”, a day after nation’s supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated there would be no war with America amid tensions escalation.
According to The Times of Israel, Major General Hossein Salami said, “We are on the cusp of a full-scale confrontation with the enemy,” while citing Iran’s Fars news agency.
Salami, who appointed as the new IRGC leader last month, said, “This moment in history — because the enemy has stepped into the field of confrontation with us with all the possible capacity — is the most decisive moment of the Islamic revolution.”
“The hard times and problems of America’s economic war against Iran have begun… what America is doing is a crime against humanity,” he added.
On Tuesday, Khamenei stated “there is not going to be any war” with Washington, but that there will also be no renegotiation of the nuclear deal.
Iranian nation’s definite option is resistance against U.S. and in this confrontation, U.S. will have to withdraw. This is not a military confrontation because no war is to happen. We don’t seek a war nor do they. They know a war wouldn’t be beneficial for them. pic.twitter.com/LVwlidej0X
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) May 14, 2019
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States of disrupting the flow of “livelihood, food and medical drugs” to normal Iranians. Rouhani added, “This war is not against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it’s against the Iranian nation.”
The Iranian president’s remarks come amid heightened tensions in the region that saw the deployment earlier this month of an American aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf and attacks over Saudi Arabia oil infrastructure.
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