Iran warns any country that attacks will be 'main battlefield'
Last updated on: 22 September,2019 10:16 am
"We will never allow any war to encroach upon Iran's territory."
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander on Saturday warned any country that attacks the Islamic republic will see its territory become the "main battlefield" as he opened an exhibition of captured drones.
Major General Hossein Salami also said Iran was "ready for any type of scenario" following reports that Washington is weighing military options in response to attacks on Saudi oil installations it blames on Tehran.
"Whoever wants their land to become the main battlefield, go ahead," Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami told a news conference in Tehran.
"We will never allow any war to encroach upon Iran’s territory.
"We hope that they don’t make a strategic mistake" as they have before, Salami said, before listing past US military "adventures" against Iran.
The Guards commamder was speaking at Tehran’s Islamic Revolution and Holy Defence museum during the unveiling of an exhibition of what Iran says are US and other drones captured in its territory.
The Guards also showed the domestically manufactured Khordad 3 air defence battery, which was used to shoot down a US Global Hawk drone on June 20.
"What are your drones doing in our airspace? We will shoot them down, shoot anything that encroaches on our airspace," said Salami, noting Iran had overcome "America’s technological dominance" in air defence and drone manufacture.
His remarks came only days after strikes on Saudi oil facilities claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
The United States said it had concluded the attacks involved cruise missiles from Iran and amounted to "an act of war".
Saudi Arabia, which has been bogged down in a five-year war in neighbouring Yemen, has said Iran "unquestionably sponsored" the attacks and the weapons used in them were Iranian-made, but has not directly blamed its regional rival.
"Sometimes they talk of military options," Salami said, apparently addressing Washington.
But "a limited aggression will not remain limited" as Iran is determined to respond and will "not rest until the aggressor’s collapse."