Thursday, November 27th, 2014 | Posted by WorldTribune.com
Iran transformed: IRGC commander proclaims Iran as global power
Special to WorldTribune.com
NICOSIA — Iran, fresh from an extension of its nuclear agreement with the West, has begun touting itself as a global power.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp said Teheran has been tranformed from a regional into a world power. IRGC deputy commander Brig. Gen Hussein Salami said Iran sees its so-called strategic borders as reaching North Africa.
“Today, the regional Iran is turning into a global Iran,” Salami said.
In several speeches to the IRGC, Salami said Iran was developing capabilities to strike anywhere in the Middle East. He said the military’s arsenal of intermediate-range ballistic missiles, combat aircraft and warships granted Iran long-range power projection.
“While in the past, our nation was fighting the enemy at the Karkheh River [in southwestern Iran], now it has expanded its strategic borders in this fight against enemies to the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa,” Salami said on Nov. 26.
Addressing the Basij forces of IRGC, Salami also touted what he termed the spread of the Islamic revolution. He said Basij, trained to quell pro-democracy demonstrations, helped stop “the arrogant powers, a reference to the United States.
The Iranian claim came amid the failure of a nuclear agreement with the P5+1 states. P5+1 agreed, however, to continue to ease sanctions on Teheran at a rate of $700 million per month.
“Iran is more powerful than any other time and our defense power against the enemies cannot be compared to the past,” Salami said. “The expansion of Iran’s military power has raced up and is now making progress at a high speed, meaning that today, we are able to hit all the vital interests of the enemies at any point in the region.”
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/11/27/iran-transformed-irgc-commander-proclaims-iran-global-power/
