AFP: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and its army have the strength to “cut off the hands” of Western powers.
TEHRAN (AFP) — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards and its army have the strength to “cut off the hands” of Western powers.
“The power of the Revolutionary Guards and the army will cut off the hands of the arrogant and bullying powers,” Ahmadinejad told a gathering of Guards’ commanders, according to Sepahnews, the force’s website.
Hailing Iran’s strength as “indestructible,” the hardliner said the Guards were the symbol of Iran’s resistance against the United States and other Western powers.
“The world of arrogance (West) is weaker and it cannot hurt the Iranian nation,” he said.
Ties between Iran and the West have worsened under the presidency of Ahmadinejad following his dogged refusal to suspend Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme.
Several top commanders of the Guards have also often boasted of the force’s ability to combat Iran’s foes, especially Israel which has not ruled out a military strike to halt the nuclear programme.
The Guards, set up after the 1979 Islamic revolution to defend it from internal and external threats, have expanded their role in the nation’s economic sectors under the Ahmadinejad presidency.
