TEHRAN - The chief of the Army’s Center for Strategic Studies warned on Tuesday that Iran may replace its defense doctrine with an offensive one.

“If the enemies seek to commit a mistake, they may face with a change of defense doctrine to an offensive one by Iran,” Ahamdreza Pourdastan pointed out.

He also pointed to the recent protests in Iran which started on December 28, 2025, but turned violent on January 8-10, 2026 with provocation of the U.S. and the Zionist regime, saying, “The American-Zionist enemy, which failed to achieve its goals after the 12-day war, has changed its policy from direct, fruitless, and costly war to a hybrid-cognitive one.” 

In line with this policy, Pourdastan said, the enemy intensified economic sanctions and pressured the European trio (Britain, France and Germany)-which were among the signatories to the JCPOA-to trigger the snapback mechanism. He noted that such pressure aimed to disrupt the flow of foreign currency into Iran to undermine the Iranian government and cause high inflation and economic hardship in the country.