Iran army chief warns US, Israel against attack, says forces on high alert

PARIS: Iranian army chief Amir Hatami on Saturday warned the United States and Israel against an attack, saying his country’s forces were on high alert following Washington’s heavy military deployments in the Gulf.

He also insisted the Islamic republic’s nuclear expertise could not be eliminated, after Trump said he expected Tehran to seek a deal to avoid US strikes.

“If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime,” Hatami said, according to the official IRNA news agency. He noted that Iran’s armed forces were “at full defensive and military readiness”. Washington sent a naval strike group to the Middle East led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with Trump threatening to intervene militarily after a deadly crackdown by Iranian authorities on two weeks of anti-government protests. The deployment has raised fears of a possible direct confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with missile strikes on US bases, ships and allies — notably Israel — in the event of an attack.

On Friday, Trump said he predicted that Iran would seek to negotiate a deal over its nuclear and missile programmes rather than face American military action. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said earlier that Tehran was ready for nuclear talks, but its missiles and defense “will never be negotiated”. With tensions heightened, Iranian authorities rushed to deny that several incidents on Saturday were linked to any attack or sabotage.

An explosion at a residential building in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas was unexplained for several hours before local firefighters announced it was a gas leak.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) denied that any of the buildings belonging to its naval forces in the province had been targeted, according to a statement carried by the Fars news agency.

The Tasnim agency on Saturday also denied “assassination rumours” surrounding the commander of the Guards’ navy Alireza Tangsiri, while state television reported smoke in Parand on the outskirts of capital Tehran was “caused by a minor fire in the reeds”.

The US carried out strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites in June when it briefly joined Israel’s 12-day war against its regional foe.

Israeli attacks also hit military sites across the country and killed senior officers and top nuclear scientists.

But Hatami on Saturday insisted that Iran’s nuclear technology “cannot be eliminated, even if scientists and sons of this nation are martyred”. On Friday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the IRGC would conduct “a two-day live-fire naval exercise” in the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit hub for global energy supplies.

In a statement, CENTCOM warned the IRGC against “any unsafe and unprofessional behavior near US forces”. The United States designated the IRGC a terrorist organisation in 2019, a move the European Union followed on Thursday.

The EU decision drew angry reactions from Tehran, which vowed to reciprocate. - Deadly crackdown -

Nationwide protests against the rising cost of living erupted in Iran on December 28, before turning into a broader anti-government movement that peaked on January 8 and 9.

Iranian authorities have said the protests began peacefully before turning into “riots” involving killings and vandalism, blaming the United States and Israel for fomenting the unrest in a “terrorist operation”.

The official death toll from the authorities stands at 3,117. However, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it has confirmed 6,563 deaths, including 6,170 protesters and 124 children.

The protests have since subsided. On Saturday, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian urged his government to heed public grievances after the demonstrations. “We must work with the people and for the people and serve the people as much as possible,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast on state TV.

“If we act justly, the people will see it and will accept it, and under such conditions, no power can cripple a government, a society, or a nation that acts justly, fairly, and on the basis of rights.”

On Saturday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited the shrine of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, in southern Tehran. In a video carried by his official website, Khamenei offered prayers at the shrine on the occasion of 10-day celebrations marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.