Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said on Tuesday that the Iranian armed forces are ready to counter any surprise attack by the enemies with a crushing response.
The vigilant Iranian armed forces are now monitoring all military movements in the region round the clock, Brigadier General Najjar said.
Iran is a powerful country in the region with high military might, he said, adding that recent war games conducted by the armed forces have demonstrated the capabilities of Iranian forces for the world.
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) completed military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf called Payambar-e Azam 3 (Great Prophet 3) in mid July to improve combat readiness and capability. Iran successfully test fired new long- and medium-range missiles in the drills.
“The enemies try to conduct a psychological warfare to intimidate us but to no avail,” he said.
Najjar’s comments follow western media reports about an armada of US, British and French naval battle groups heading toward the Persian Gulf with the aim of reinforcing US strike forces in the region.
Iranian armed forces are self-sufficient in the production of defense soft and hardware, Najjar added.
He also announced that Iran has built a new unmanned intelligent submarine along with a boat which evades radar detection.
Najjar told reporters that the intelligent submarine and the boat would enhance the Iranian Navy’s defense capabilities.
The announcement came a week after the defense minister announced the weapons were test fired.
Last month, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) successfully test fired a home-made missile which can evade radar.
“Iran successfully test fired a home-made Fajr-3 missile,” Hossein Salami, a senior commander, said.
The missile was tested as part of a week of naval war games in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.
IRGC also said earlier this month that it had successfully test-fired a naval weapon which could destroy any vessel within a range of 300 kilometers (190) miles.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has recently tested a naval weapon with a 300 km range in which no vessel would be safe and would be sent to the depths,” IRGC Commander-in-Chief Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said on August 4.
He said that the home-made weapon system is “unique in the world” and introduces a state-of-the-art technology never used before.
“The design and production technology used in this weapon is completely indigenous to Iran and has never been employed by any other country,” Jafari said but did not give details.
The new weapon’s range indicated it may be some type of torpedo or a missile.
Jafari’s comment came after Iran test-fired various types of long and short ranges missiles during a military exercise in the Persian Gulf aimed at increasing readiness of the country’s military forces against possible threats.
Iran concluded its Great Prophet III war games last month, which featured Tehran’s new long- and medium-range missiles capable of hitting targets inside Israel.
To show their readiness to defend the country, the IRGC troops test-fired missiles and torpedoes in the Persian Gulf, including a new Shahab 3 missile with a range of 2,012 kilometers.
The Iranian war games and missile tests are viewed as a strong response to intensified threats by the Zionist regime and the United States.
Iran and the West are locked in a standoff over the country’s nuclear program, which the US and its allies allege to be aimed at making nuclear weapons, while they don’t have any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations.
Iran denies the charge and says the program is only for producing electricity.
Both the US and Israel have stressed that military action is a main option to deter Iran’s nuclear progress.
Speculation that Israel could bomb Iran has mounted since a big Israeli air drill last month. In the first week of June, 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters reportedly took part in an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which was interpreted as a dress rehearsal for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.
Tehran has vowed to strike back at Israel as well as US interests and military bases and shipping if it came under attack.
US forces are stationed in several countries around the Persian Gulf, including Bahrain where the US Navy Fifth Fleet is based. Iran says US forces are in range of its weapons.
Around 40 percent of globally traded oil leaves the region through the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, flanked by the coastlines of Iran and Oman.
