TEHRAN — Habibollah Sayyari, the deputy army chief for coordination affairs, says the presence of trans-regional powers is seen in all regional conflicts.

“Those powers have imposed security challenges on the region by creating terrorist groups,” Sayyari said on Monday, Mehr reported.

He said the Islamic Revolution emerged in spite of all hostilities and insecurities as well as foreign interventions in the region.

The Islamic Revolution has proposed the idea that the only way to establish security in the region is through non-intervention of trans-regional powers, he remarked.

According to Sayyari, the trans-regional powers have militarized the region and orchestrated many plots against regional countries.

He also said the Islamic Republic of Iran is the biggest victim of terrorism, with more than 17,000 martyrs who lost their lives in terrorist attacks.

Therefore, he continued, the Islamic Republic and its armed forces are the flag-bearers of the fight against terrorism.

He pointed to the U.S. assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, saying the terrorist attack was a measure that once again proved that the self-described human rights proponents are in fact terrorists.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered strikes that martyred General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC attacked the U.S. airbase of Ain al-Assad in Anbar province in western Iraq as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terror attack.

Brian Hook, the U.S. special representative for Iran, told the Arabic-language daily Asharq al-Awsat on January 23 that Esmail Ghaani, who is successor of Lieutenant General Soleimani, could also be assassinated.

Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) responded to the remarks, warning the U.S. and Israel that none of their military commanders will be safe should they take action against Iranian generals.

“The Americans and the Zionists beware that if they threaten our commanders with assassination and if they implement their threat, life of none of their commanders will be safe,” Major General Hossein Salami said last week, according to Mehr.

MH/PA