May 16, 2018
In response to the recent skirmishes between the Israeli Air Force and Iranian military units in the Golan Heights, the Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Brigadier-General Hossein Salami, said: “We are in the midst of an economic war. The U.S. and its European allies are tightening the economic noose around Iran’s neck. Our country is also struggling with economic crisis and widespread poverty. We must face these problems head-on.”
Speaking at an event in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan on May 10, Commander Salami said: “Withdrawing from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, better known as the Iran nuclear deal), and raising concerns about our ballistic missile tests are just excuses. The ultimate goal is to bring the Iranian nation to its knees. Resistance and not diplomacy will help us to win this economic war.”
Salami added: “European countries won’t be able to act independently of the U.S. We’ve always been victorious in our fights against powerful enemies. We’ve gained strength through hard-fought battles. Our enemies will use economic sanctions and not the military option against Iran.”
Many senior officials in the Islamic Republic don’t believe that the West would launch a military attack against Iran, because it fears the country’s military capabilities. However, the same elite group didn’t think that the U.S. would withdraw from the JCPOA. The latest clashes between the IRGC and Israeli forces in Syria have increased the prospects of an all-out war between the two countries. There is a real possibility that Israel may strike targets inside Iran.
French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Iran and Israel to de-escalate the tension in Syria. His office released a statement saying that Mr. Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were planning to meet and discuss the Middle East crisis.
Russia has also expressed concern over the direct clashes between the IRGC and the Israeli Air Force in the Golan Heights. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, said that Moscow was in close contact with Tel Aviv and Tehran.
Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Cornicus said: “This was a significant strike against the Iranian positions in Syria. We’ll continue our operation against the IRGC.”
Iranian state media have reported that the Syrian army and not the IRGC was responsible for the missile attacks in the Golan Heights. “Iranian media is portraying the confrontation as an unprecedented Syrian attack on Israel,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Responding on Twitter to a CNN report on the Israeli strikes, Syrian Member of Parliament Fares Shehabi denied that Iranians had launched the rockets against Israel. He wrote: “The Syrian army (not Iranians) launched 50 rockets (not 20) on several Israeli army targets in the Golan, and most rockets hit their targets. It is time we strike back at Tel Aviv and not only at the occupied Golan Heights!”
