TEHRAN — In an address linking ecological preservation to national defense, Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), identified the United States as the world’s most prolific and deliberate destroyer of the natural environment.

Speaking Sunday at the National Conference on Environmental Hazards and National Security at Imam Hussein University, Vahidi argued that safeguarding the biosphere is inseparable from resisting Western military hegemony.

“The most significant deliberate factor in the destruction of the environment is the arsenal of weaponry produced by the U.S.,” Vahidi declared, placing Washington at the forefront of global environmental violators.

He said American weapons—designed for mass lethality—pose a direct threat to the continuity of human life.

His criticism extended to other Western powers, most notably Germany, which Vahidi cited for its historical role in supplying chemical agents to the Ba’athist regime during the 1980s, an act that resulted in the dual devastation of Iranian lives and the regional ecosystem.

A major focus of the speech was the “militarization of space” and atmospheric manipulation. Vahidi expressed disgust over U.S. missile initiatives such as the “Golden Dome” and the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), describing them as violations of international conventions.

By directing high-frequency waves into the ionosphere, he said, the U.S. has shifted from managing natural disasters to creating “man-made, intentional hazards.”

Vahidi drew a direct link between these technologies and ongoing conflicts, describing the war on Gaza as a “complete case study” in ecocide.

He said Israeli and American munitions have been used to systematically destroy soil and water, eliminating the conditions necessary for biological life and treating the environment as a casualty of strategic objectives.

The commander’s warnings come at a moment of acute international alarm following a provocative shift in American nuclear policy. In late 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a directive to the Pentagon to resume preparations for live nuclear weapons testing.

The American president has effectively moved to dismantle a 33-year moratorium on full-scale nuclear testing that had been in place since 1992.

While Washington has long used supercomputing and high-energy lasers to maintain its arsenal, this pivot toward explosive testing—despite never formally ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT)—is viewed by many as a final blow to decades of non-proliferation efforts.

Beyond conventional warfare, Vahidi addressed the “invisible” dangers of biological and nuclear experimentation, citing the long-term environmental damage caused by U.S. nuclear tests and the spread of Western biological laboratories, which he linked to the COVID-19 crisis.

Turning to regional security, Vahidi warned that environmental degradation fuels instability, describing “water wars” as a central driver of Middle Eastern tensions.

He cited the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights and Jordan Valley as the strategic seizure of critical water resources.

Domestically, he said land subsidence, drying rivers, and dust storms are national security threats, warning that unemployment and forced migration resulting from these hazards could lead to social instability.

Vahidi concluded by calling for a paradigm shift, asserting that defending water and soil quality is as vital to the Islamic Republic’s mission as protecting its borders.