Iranian generals mock U.S. military threat as 'ridiculous'
TEHRAN (Christian Examiner) – While U.S. senators were approving a bill May 7 that reportedly gives Congress time to review and evaluate a nuclear agreement with Iran, Iran's top generals were claiming "Islamic pride" will prevent the U.S. military from dominating Iran should the two countries go to war.
We have prepared ourselves for the most dangerous scenarios and this is no big deal.
"Today, Islamic Iran's pride and might has made the world's biggest materialistic and military powers kneel down before the Islamic Republic's might," Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, told the FARS news agency.
FARS is an official propaganda arm of the Islamic Republic.
Jafari hinted that U.S. negotiations with Iran were a sign of America's weakness, even though the United States had informed its Israeli allies military force was still an option to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But Jafari said the idea of military action on the part of the U.S. was "ridiculous."
"They know that if the military option could have produced any result, they would have already used it many times," Jafari said, "Today they have shifted their focus to other types of threat and to the soft war front."
Tension in the Persian Gulf has been building since negotiations began between the United States, Iran and four other nations over Iran's nuclear program. Iran has seemed willing to derail the negotiations by its interference in Yemen, where it has supported Houthi Shiite rebels against the Sunni government. Iran's Navy has also interfered with ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, promoting the U.S. Navy to send a carrier taskforce to the region.
Should war come, which Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said he welcomes, he predicts Iran will win and show the world its "real potentials of power."
"We have prepared ourselves for the most dangerous scenarios and this is no big deal," Salami told FARS in a separate interview.
Boasting and sabre rattling are not uncommon practices in Iran. "Death to America" is a daily chant during the Shiite nation's daily prayers.