Tehran, September 07: Iran’s top military commander, Yahya Rahim-Safavi, has warned against great failures of the United States in the war-ravaged country.
“It seems that the US military failure in Afghanistan is far greater than its failure in Iraq,” the senior military advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei told Mehr News Agency.
“There is a high probability that Afghanistan will turn into another Vietnam for US and its allies,” he said.
“On the other hand, we should accept the fact that presence of more than 200,000 foreign forces in the region particularly in South-West Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Middle East, expansion of their bases, sale of billions of dollars of military equipments to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and looting their oil resources are the cause root of insecurity in South-West Asia, the Persian Gulf region and Iran,” added the top commander.
He believed that the current situation makes Muslim nations feel more profound hatred towards presence of occupiers in the region.
“The recent security pact between US and NATO and Afghanistan showed the United States has no plan to leave the region,” he said.
Rahim-Safavi noted that presence of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf had been a cause for concern for Russia, China and Iran.
“Russia worries about US presence in Central Asia and China has concerns about US interference in its two main Muslim provinces bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran regards presence of the forces as a main reason for insecurity and believes that withdrawal of occupiers will be the mere way to establish security and peace in the Middle East,” he added.
Iran’s top military figure said that although 130,000 US forces would leave Iraq by 2010, “the US will keep 10 military bases in Iraq.”
“The US has so far sold $8 billion weapons to Iraq’s army. The US does not present in Iraq’s ground border but has a full control over its sky.”
“I think the US will remain in Iraq during next years to loot its oil sources and meet its own strategic interests,” Rahim-Safavi said.
The commander went to give an analysis on Israel’s moves in the future, saying, “I believe that Israel may draw plots to reciprocate its defeats in war on Lebanon and Gaza. These plots can either target the Gaza Strip, Lebanon or even Iran.”
“It is necessary to mention that despite their great power, Iran’s armed forces will never underestimate the threat of Israel,” Rahim-Safavi concluded.
—–Agencies