A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard warned that any new American military move against Iran, “even if it is limited,” will put the world facing a “serious energy crisis.”
Brigadier General Hussein Mohebi said, in press statements, that Iranian assessments indicate that the United States “is definitely not in a position that allows it to start a new confrontation that will achieve new gains,” according to what was reported by the Fars Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards.
But he did not rule out that Washington would resort to limited action before the US elections. He said in this regard, “From a technical and military perspective, America does not have the ability to launch a new operation and confrontation, but it is possible, due to the approaching elections, that it will seek to create an achievement through limited action, and benefit from its electoral result.”
He added: “We do not ignore the possibilities, and we are ready to respond to any move. This time, our response will be much stronger, and America will face much greater troubles, and it will also put the world in greater troubles.
Weapons for “special circumstances”
In response to a question about whether the Revolutionary Guard has weapons that it has not yet used in war, Mohebi said: “It is natural for any country not to use all of its weapons at once, or to start from the last.”
He added: “For a long time, we have used weapons that we produced decades ago, and the weapons we use date back to previous production. “We never use a weapon that should be used in special circumstances, in less sensitive circumstances.”
Mohebi did not specify the nature or capabilities of these weapons, nor the circumstances that might prompt Tehran to use them.
Mohebi said that the United States entered the previous war “with all its might,” with equipped bases, very many equipment, and forces “ready for action,” and used various capabilities, but it “did not achieve any of its declared and undeclared goals.”
He added: “Not only did it fail to achieve its goals, but it suffered many strategic defeats, the least of which was the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which it has not been able to open so far despite all its attempts.”
He claimed that the United States was no longer able to use its bases in the region as before, saying that “most of those bases were out of service, and most of their equipment was destroyed,” and that the countries that were cooperating with it at the time “no longer cooperated with it to the same extent.”
He said that the American forces are “exhausted and tired, and have moved hundreds of kilometers away from us,” adding: “Before the war began, they had at least 30 to 40 naval warships inside the Gulf, but now they do not have any in it, but rather moved away about 700 kilometers from the Strait of Hormuz.”
Regional war
The advisor to the Iranian leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and his assistant, Mohammad Mokhber, said, “Iran’s strategy is that the war, if repeated, will become a regional war.” He added that “Iranian deterrence” prevented the United States and Israel from using their full capabilities, “because any attack on infrastructure may have regional repercussions.”
He cited the attack on a liquefied petroleum gas facility in Qatar, saying: “For example, when the liquefied petroleum gas center in Qatar was attacked, the whole world faced a problem.”
He added, "The cost of the war has reached such an extent that our enemies are confused and do not know what to do," claiming that "70 percent of Americans oppose the war, and Trump's popularity has declined to an unprecedented level."
Commenting on the American threat to use the “mother of all bombs” against Iran, an informant said: “These threats and bombs will not reach anywhere. These bombs they are talking about exploded in America itself, and they did not notice.
Mukhbar criticized calls to abandon the Strait of Hormuz to avoid greater losses, likening their supporters to those who justified Iran's concessions to Russia in the Turkmenchay Treaty in the nineteenth century.
He said in a symposium entitled “An Independent and Powerful Iran: Capabilities, Challenges, and Strategies”: “Some of these gentlemen say that the concessions offered in the (Turkmanjay) Treaty were so that the rest of the country would not be lost, and that if we continued a little, the rest would also be lost. Just as some of them are saying now: Let us abandon the Strait of Hormuz so that the rest of the country is not lost.” He did not name the authors of these calls.
The Qajar state signed the Treaty of Turkmanjay with the Russian Empire in February 1828, after its defeat in the Russo-Persian War. Accordingly, Iran ceded the Khanates of Ervan and Nakhchivan, which were subject to Qajar sovereignty and whose lands are today located within Armenia and Azerbaijan, paid large financial compensation, and granted Russia trade privileges and the exclusive right to deploy warships in the Caspian Sea.
In Iranian political memory, the treaty is a symbol of defeat and concession before foreign powers.
