Screenshot: MEMRI TV
BY: Adam Kredo December 12, 2014 8:00 am
A credible U.S. military option against Iran is off the table and something the Obama administration can no longer even think about, according to one of Irans top military leaders, who claimedin a wide-ranging interview that Iran has deployed advanced missiles and satellites capable of tracking foreign militaries.
Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of Irans elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), scoffed at the Obama administrations insistence that a credible military option exists against Iran and discussed the Islamic Republics offensive military capabilities during a wide-ranging interview on Iranian state-run television.
On the heels of another deal with Iran that extends talks with Western powers over the countrys contested nuclear program through July 2015, Salami accused the United States of bluffing about the threat of military action against Tehran.
We have denied our enemy any military option, Salami said in an interview on Iranian television just days after the Nov. 24 extension in talks was announced. The enemy can no longer even think about a military option.
When senior U.S. officials use the term military option, it is only for psychology purposes, Salami said, according to a translation of his Farsi language remarks provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). It is an outdated bluff. It is a banal and decayed theory. To use the Americans own words, it is political decay.
Salami went on to declare that U.S. sanctions against Iranwhich have been significantly weakened under the terms of an interim deal with the Westno longer have an impact on the Iranian economy and will not push the Islamic Republic to make concessions in the nuclear negotiations.
The Americans believe that their economic sanctions have had an effect on our people or on our economy, the military leader said. They believe that they can take their time, wear us down in negotiations, and continue the sanctions.
That way, they hope to bring our people to despair, and to lead to political defeat [in the negotiations], he continued. We can and must throw these beliefs into the garbage-can of history.
See the original post here:
Iran: U.S. Military Option Is Off the Table | Washington ...