Saudis will face crushing response: Iranian commander

Sun Apr 19, 2015 9:45PM

Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad
Reza Pourdastan

The commander of Iranian Army’s Ground Forces has warned Saudi Arabia
of facing a crushing response from inside Yemen if the ongoing
aggression against the Arab country continues.

“The Saudi Arabian army has no war experience and is very fragile and
if it is confronted with a war of attrition, it should await crushing
blows and it will suffer heavy defeat,” Brigadier General Ahmad Reza
Pourdastan said Sunday in an interview with Arabic-language news
channel al-Alam.

The Iranian commander further recommended the Saudi government to stop
what he called “fratricide,” adding that Saudis’ past experiences in
Yemen have proven that they will have no easy job winning the war on
the impoverished country.

Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad
Reza Pourdastan (L) speaks in al-Alam’s “From Tehran” show on April
19, 2015.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26 –
without a UN mandate – in a bid to restore power to the country’s
fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and to undermine
the popular Ansarullah Houthi revolutionaries.

Pourdastan highlighted the boosted morale of the Yemeni people in the
face of the ongoing aggression against their country, saying Saudi
airstrikes against Yemen have created more “unity and solidarity”
among the Yemeni people.

“Such solidarity paves the ground for huge blows to Saudi Arabia and
through such solidarity they managed to defeat most of forces loyal to
Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and took control of Yemen,” he said, adding
that if Saudi cities are targeted by the Yemenis, Riyadh will have
serious difficulty dealing with it.

A picture taken on April 17, 2015 shows people walking past buildings
that were damaged the day before in an air strike by Saudi Arabia at a
market in the port city of Aden. (AFP)

Pourdastan rejected some claims that Iran is part of the crisis in
Yemen or accusations that Tehran is sending weapons to the Yemenis,
saying, those making such claims themselves know the unreal nature of
such accusations as they are monitoring the roads and the seas
constantly.

He said Iran’s sole concern for Yemen is to send humanitarian aid to
the people in order to “reduce part of their suffering.”

According to reports, over 2,500 people, including women and children,
have so far lost their lives in the attacks.

Iran not willing to confront Saudis

He also touched upon an ongoing mission by an Iranian fleet near
Yemen’s southern coasts, saying that the fleet’s presence in the area
was planned before the Saudi aggression on Yemen started. He said the
fleet is on a mission to protect Iranian ships against the potential
terrorist threats in the Gulf of Aden and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait.

The high-profile Iranian commander further said that Iran is not
interested in getting involved in a confrontation with Riyadh,
describing Saudi Arabia as a friend of Iran and an ally.

“Saudi Arabia’s military attaché is currently in our country and we
invited him to attend a (ceremony) on the Army Day. We want to have
ties with Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad
Reza Pourdastan (R) attends a speech by Leader of the Islamic
Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei (unseen) on April 19, 2015 on the
occasion of Iran’s Army Day.

Elsewhere in his comments, Pourdastan highlighted the role of the
United States in supporting terrorist groups like the ISIL, saying
that the war waged by ISIL, the al-Nusra Front, and Boko Haram in
Iraq, Syria, and Nigeria are all proxy battles waged in favor of the
US and Israel.

Since the very beginning of ISIL’s advances in western and northern
Iraq, Iranian army defined a 40-kilometer red zone into the Iraqi
territory to warn the terrorists of any potential move towards the
Iranian borders, he said.

Meanwhile, the Iranian commander also referred to a recent decision by
Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift a long-existing ban on
delivering the advanced S-300 air defense system to Tehran, saying
that the development should be viewed as a “step forward” in promoting
the defense capabilities of Islamic Republic.

Pourdastan also said that five major military drills are planned for
the Iranian army in the current Iranian calendar year which started on
March 21.

MS/NT/AS