Tasnim – Iran’s Army Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi highlighted the country’s full readiness to counter foreign threats and said at the current situation, further boosting the Army units’ preparedness is “an inevitable necessity”.

Addressing a gathering of the Army commanders on Saturday, Major General Mousavi stressed the importance of boosting the vigilance and preparedness of the commanders at all strategic and operational levels.

“Today, thank God, all units of the Army have full combat and psychological readiness and if the enemy dares to make a miscalculation or a strategic mistake, it will receive a response that would make it regret it,” Major General Mousavi said in a speech on Saturday.

“In the current situation, maintaining and boosting the vigilance and readiness of the Army units is an inevitable necessity and would deter the enemy threats,” the commander added.

The remarks came a few days after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei downplayed the United States’ highly belligerent rhetoric against Iran, stressing that Washington's real capability do not match its inflated bluster.

“In (its) policy of confrontation with the Islamic Republic too, the US will definitely suffer defeat, and (the situation) will end up to our benefit,” the Leader said, citing warnings by American analysts that Washington’s pressure on Tehran would, contrary to its intended purpose, trigger an “economic mutation.”

The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump is trying to reduce Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” and has sent an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber squad, an amphibious assault ship, and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to try to stack up pressure on Tehran.

Iranian officials, however, have dismissed such moves as psychological warfare, saying the country has its own ways of circumventing the American bans and selling crude oil.