Tehran – Major General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Commander (IRGC), declared that Iran was fully prepared for any scenario, vowing that the invaders would be “smashed.”
At Tuesday’s gathering in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, Salami emphasized that Tehran remains indomitable and wary of its enemy despite continuing indirect nuclear talks.
“We know our enemy perfectly and monitor its movements. With political contact and negotiations still underway, we stand in grandeur and firmness, and anyone who dares to engage with Iran will fall to pieces,” he declared.
The commander’s comments come even as we repeatedly threatened military action if indirect nuclear talks with Iran fail to produce results that serve their interests.
However, Salami predicted confidence and highlighted Iran’s strengthened military capabilities. “Iran’s power has developed many times since last year,” he said, adding that this growth is evident to the nation’s enemies.
Resistance’s resilience shines
Salami dismissed the claim that Israeli invasion reduced the front of resistance. Instead, he pointed to recent developments as evidence of its lasting strength.
“The enemy believed the front of resistance had weakened, but we’ve seen Gaza become stronger. Yemen is now colliding more effectively with missiles, and Hezbollah has regained that power,” he said.
This week, an impressive example of this resilience emerged, with Yemen’s Ansalala movement launching postponed ballistic missiles at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Wednesday. The attack, which took place in solidarity with the Palestinians amid Israel’s continued attacks on Gaza, entered the occupied territory, pushed millions of Israelis into shelters and halted air traffic for nearly an hour.
Similarly, on May 4, Yemeni forces directly attacked Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv after the regime’s air defense system, including arrows and Thaad, fled to intercept sophisticated missiles.
Since late 2023, Yemeni military has targeted the Israeli regime in response to a military campaign in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
Despite aggressive US military operations under the Trump administration, including a direct strike campaign that lasts more than a month despite aggressive US military operations aimed at “eliminating the Houtis (Ansalala)” – the group endures and maintains pressure by defeating the US fateful drones on the Israeli administration.
Salami pointed to Israel’s vulnerability and questioned the regime’s ability to withstand a bigger onslaught. “What would they do if those who couldn’t even withstand a single missile from Ansarra in Yemen were faced with 600 missiles at once?” he said.
The IRGC chief painted a tough picture of the administration’s future. “Agitated, furious, there’s no bright horizon,” he said, describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a convicted war criminal who was plagued by the illusion of arrest.
“Political, Israel has completely collapsed, and even Europe is reluctant to maintain proper political relations with it. Economically, they collapse and without US aid, they won’t last a day.”
The decline of the United States
Salami reserved equally sharp criticism for the United States, describing it as a nation of chaos.
“The United States knows that engagement in war doesn’t solve that problem. It faces a rotten, exhausting military, awkward political leaders, and overwhelming crisis and challenges,” he argued.
He further argued that changes in US leadership, including Trump’s tenure, have done little to reverse this trajectory.
“The US President initially came like a bully to change the world, but now he’s changed, failing all his plans and retreating,” Salami said.
Analysts note that Trump struggles to fulfill his important promises in his first 100 days in his efforts to end the Ukrainian war, reform the economy, adjust tariffs, and address conflicts in West Asia that meet serious setbacks or complete failures.