Iran key player in Middle East – Revolutionary Guards Chief

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Oct. 31 – The Commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) told a gathering of the organisation’s para-military Bassij force that the Islamic Republic was the region’s central power and wielded influence over political decisions in the Middle East. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 31 – The Commandant of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) told a gathering of the organisation’s para-military Bassij force that the Islamic Republic was the region’s central power and wielded influence over political decisions in the Middle East.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is at the heart of the three strategic regions of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. It can play a decisive role in the emergence of political, economic, cultural, and security entities in the region”, Major General Rahim Safavi said on Sunday.

Safavi said that presently both the region and the wider world were ripe for the taking and government officials and the Bassij had to be prepared to defend Iran’s national interests.

“With our joint borders with Iraq and Afghanistan, we cannot be indifferent to regional changes and developments”, he said.

Safavi warned the United States to take Iran’s influence in the region seriously. “America must know that it cannot ignore Iran’s cultural, political, and security role in the region”.

He said that the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea held 75 percent of the world’s precious oil reserves.

“Iran is at the centre of one of the world’s largest communications networks. It is like a bridge in the centre of the world’s communications that connects the East to the West and the North to the South”, Safavi said.

The IRGC Commandant, who was a long-time comrade of Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, vowed that Tehran would never succumb to U.S. pressure. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully aware of developments in the region and, as the heart of the Middle East region, will never budge to the influence of America’s singular policies”, he said, adding that Iran’s armed forces had reached a level of complete preparedness.

He also warned European nations not to tie their national interests to those of the U.S.