Iran has reacted to U.S. military threats against Iran by noting that U.S. bases in the region are within the Islamic Republic’s missile range.
On Saturday, Reuters reported that senior military commander Brigadier General Yahya Rahim Safavi said: “The United States has more than 20 bases and more than 100,000 military forces in the region, and all of them are within Iranian military range. Politicians and military commanders know this well. All their bases are within range of Iranian missiles.”
He also warned that Israel could be targeted by Iranian missiles.
Safavi is a supreme advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and he was the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps until 2007.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced recently that the U.S. has prepared plans in the event of a possible attack on Iran. Several Israeli officials have also regularly announced that they are prepared to use the military option against Iran,
Iran has said that it will respond in kind to such eventualities.
Despite the language of war, Iran will meet with the G5+1 in Moscow on June 18 and 19 in order to reach an agreement about Iran’s nuclear program that would satisfy both sides.
U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton has called for “concrete steps” from Iran. World powers are concerned that Iran may be building nuclear weapons and claim that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a threat to the region and the world.
Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful; however, some analysts claim that the world powers’ persistence in making military threats against Iran may convince Iranian politicians that their only road to survival is to develop an atomic bomb.
