Commander of Irans Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari[/caption]TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari downplayed enemies' war rhetoric against Tehran, and said the US military base in Northern Iraq is not considered a threat to Iran.
"The US base (in Iraq's Kurdistan region) is not a threat to us and we believe that we have left behind (the era of) the superpowers' direct threats and no matter how thoughtless the enemies can be in foreseeing the future, we believe the issue with direct threat is over now," Jafari said in a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
He said that the US military base in Northern Iraq is meant to support the Iraqi Kurds who have been deployed in Erbil region.
Also asked about Iran's position on the United States' possible airstrikes on ISIL or even government positions on Syrian soil and Damascus's possible response, Jafari said, "We will certainly show political reaction, but we will not show any direct military action."
"The Islamic Republic of Iran's policy is supporting Syria, and this action of the United States is bullying and is condemned," he said, but he meantime underlined, "They will regret if they take such an action."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei also warned on Monday that the US strike on Syria would be reciprocated by repenting response, although he said Iran would not be involved in such reciprocity.
Also on Monday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Hassan Firouzabadi warned the US and its allies to avoid exercising new plots in the region, saying that fighting and bombing the positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group could not be a pretext for violating the sovereignty of Syria and Iraq.
"Military experts know that aerial bombardment is not the solution in the fight against terrorism and it can only be one in the chain of the military actions needed for a comprehensive fight against terrorism," Firouzabadi said on Monday, implying the United States' theatrical moves against terrorism.
He said the experience gained in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq in the last few months showed that effective fight against terrorism should include a simultaneous use of a wide range of tactics and methods, and said, "The experienced Syrian army forces and the country's popular forces as well as the Iraqi army and popular forces should have the main role in this campaign."
"Bombing the ISIL terrorists can no way be a permission for violating the sovereignty of the Syrian and Iraqi states," Firouzabadi added.
He stressed the necessity for the regional countries' vigilance against the US plots, and expressed the hope that "those Muslim regional states that helped to the creation of the ISIL at the beginning of this game would relinquish this plot".
His comments came after NATO heads of state convened in the Welsh city of Newport on 4-5 September. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told foreign and defense ministers participating in the NATO summit that the US was forming a broad international coalition against ISIL.
Ministers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark met in Wales to hammer out a strategy for battling ISIL, but the policy was questioned by many regional officials and political leaders.
By Fars News Agency
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