“We do not allow American aircraft, even the passenger airliners, to cross Iran’s airspace, because we disagree with the policies of the US government,” Brigadier General Esmaili said.
“Moreover, the countries which are committing crimes in Yemen cannot use Iran’s airspace either,” he underlined.
“A while ago a Saudi official said we can capture the Islamic Republic’s airspace in four hours! After that, Iran’s air defence came into action and declared that the Saudi aircraft had no right to cross the airspace of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Esmaili went on to say that the International Civil Aviation Organization gave the title “Safest Airspace in the Middle East” to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
He also explained the capabilities and plans of Khatam al-Anbia Air Defence Base in a Farsi interview with the Vatan-e Emrouz newspaper on the anniversary of the formation of the base.
Talking about the new forms of threat, he said the neighbouring countries surrounding Iran are sometimes not well controlled and put their territories at the disposal of trans-national and arrogant states, or they eventually have a military treaty and contracts, and give part of their territory or military bases to trans-regional countries.
This helps the countries that are thousands of miles far away from Iran to get practically located next to the country, he added.
Regarding the new weapons bought by Saudi Arabia, this Iranian military official stated that with the money of the Saudi nation and the petrodollars that belong to the next generations, Saudis buy equipment that they cannot even use in the right way.
“The people of Saudi Arabia are Muslims, and we have Mecca and Medina there, so we respect them, but if the Saudi regime wants to start a game to pursue US policies like the one adopted in Yemen, they must know that we are not Yemen and we will respond immediately.”
“We brought down the aircraft which belonged to the Saudis’ master (US) and kept it for seven hours. The United States could wage a war in less than 10 minutes, but why it did not? Because Washington knew that it will not benefit from it. Be sure that the US will not benefit from any conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Brigadier General Esmaili stressed.
