General Commander of Iranian Republican Guards Corps, Yahya Safavi: We Have Thousands of Martyrdom-Seekers; We Have No Problem Giving Missiles to Friendly Neighboring Countries
Following are excerpts from an interview with Yahya Safavi, General Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which aired on Al-Alam TV on November 5, 2006:
Yahya Safavi: We have sea-to-sea missiles and surface-to-sea missiles, which cover thousands of kilometers, from the Sea of Oman to the northern Persian Gulf. We designed this missile system to be mobile, so that enemy planes or satellites would not be able to track them. In any event, this technology is Iranian-made, and we have managed to obtain new developed technologies.
In these wargames, we displayed and tested only a part of these technologies. We displayed them to the public. But many of these accomplishments will remain unknown, which have not yet been presented in public, and we will display them in the next wargames.
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We have managed to design all the spare parts, all the equipment, and even the fuel, especially with regard to the Shihab 3, which covers a range of 2,000 kilometers, but also with regard to the Shihab 2. These are all Iranian-made technologies, and we have no need for other countries. Moreover, we are capable of giving these missile systems to neighboring and friendly countries. There is nothing preventing us from doing so.
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Under the present circumstances, the Americans are deeply embroiled in the problems and military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and over 160,000 American soldiers have fallen into the Iraqi quagmire, and do not have the strength to proceed or retreat, or rather, to flee from Iraq, because they were dealt a huge political scandal. There is no military threat against our country... We do not assume that there is any military threat, but as the IRGC, which is considered the largest defense force in Iran, with its five armed branches, we naturally have defense plans of deterrence, like any other country.
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We do not rely only on defense technology. The IRGC has thousands of martyrdom-seekers, who have gained military experience during the eight years of war, and these martyrdom-seekers are prepared to carry out martyrdom operations on large scales. They operate professionally, and have undergone training. They have a strong spirit of martyrdom.
General Commander of Iranian Republican Guards Corps, Yahya Safavi: We Have Thousands of Martyrdom-Seekers; We Have No Problem Giving Missiles to Friendly Neighboring Countries
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