Tehran battle ready if hostilities renew with Israel: Iranian military commanders
'Our forces are fully prepared to resume combat from exactly where it stopped,' said Major General Mohammad Pakpour, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), during a meeting in Tehran with Major General Amir Hatami, commander-in-chief of the Iranian Army, reports Iran International.
'The aggressors will not be spared,' Pakpour said.
'The will and resolve of the Iranian people and our armed forces have triumphed. We stand together.'
Hatami said Iran would not wait for external threats to materialise. Last week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the war with Iran "is not over".
Calling the 'Zionist regime (Israel)' a threat to global peace, the Iranian Army chief alleged that Jerusalem 'would strike others in the region,' if given the opportunity, adding 'We will not allow it.'
The Iranian military commanders' statement comes after Israel's airstrikes in Damascus, where it attacked the building of the state-run media, the headquarters of the Defence Ministry, a military site close to the Presidential Palace, and various other military installations.
US President Donald Trump expects Iran to return to nuclear negotiations, saying that diplomacy is in Tehran's best interest, according to the State Department Spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.
'I know that he expects them to begin to negotiate because that's in their best interest,' Bruce said in an interview with Fox News.
'He has believed and continues to believe that diplomacy will work here."
Trump has warned that if Iran's nuclear programme continues to pose a threat, he would "absolutely" consider more strikes, "without a question".
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