TEHRAN – Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, has said Iran remains fully equipped and ready to deliver a “swift, decisive, and regret-inducing” response to any act of aggression — while making clear that the Islamic Republic seeks no regional war and is acting with restraint.

“While we are prepared, we have no intention of starting a war in the region,” Mousavi said on Sunday, during a ceremony marking Iran’s Air Force Day, where he addressed a gathering of commanders and servicemen from the Air Force and Air Defense divisions.

Mousavi emphasized that any regional conflict would harm not only aggressor states but the region’s collective progress. “Although the targets of a regional war would be the aggressors,” he explained, “it would nonetheless set back the region’s progress and development for years.”

During the same ceremony, another senior Iranian commander said the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces stand ready to confront “any level of threats.”
“The Armed Forces of Islamic Iran, enjoying a firm and steely resolve, are prepared to face any level of threats,” said Brigadier General Bahman Bahmard, the commander of the Air Force.

The top general further touched upon the measures adopted by the Air Force during the course of the Israeli act of aggression against Iran in mid-2025.
“During the 12-day imposed war, not fearing enemy attacks, the Air Force not only conducted scramble missions, aerial patrols and unmanned offensive operations, but also carried out one of the largest aerial deployments in the shortest possible timeframe,” stated the commander.

On June 13, 2025, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that killed well over 1,000 people in the country, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians. The United States also entered the war directly by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a gross violation of international law.

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.

Six months after the war, in early January, the enemy tried to make up for its defeat by instigating riots in Iran, but failed as Iranian law enforcement and security forces promptly dealt with the foreign-backed terrorists and mercenaries that hijacked the peaceful protests.

In the meantime, U.S. President Donald Trump has refused to give up its threatening rhetoric in dealing with Iran despite both Tehran and Washington having been engaged in indirect talks and are planning to hold a second round of negotiations.

Iranian authorities have announced, time and again, that they are ready to settle issues through diplomacy and dialogue, but at the same time will not succumb to pressure and threats and will stand up to any act of aggression.