Iran Will Never Backtrack in Face of US Aggression: Commander

Bullying other countries has become a regular thing with the United States and Washington expects states to keep silent on its acts of aggression, Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Sunday.

He added that Iran adopted a peaceful attitude to the ten US Marines who had trespassed on Iran’s territorial waters in January although “they were aggressors.”

“However, the Americans did not tolerate even such a peaceful attitude… and we are currently witnessing its signs that they are angry with what happened to their sailors in the Persian Gulf,” Jazayeri stated.

In a statement on January 13, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) announced that the US sailors were released after they apologized for the incident.

The statement read, “Following the illegal and unpermitted entry of two American Navy vessels into the Islamic Republic of Iran’s territorial waters near Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf on the evening of the previous day, the vessels stopped, obeying a warning by IRGC vessels, and their crewmembers, who comprised nine male Marines and one female Marine, were placed under arrest.”

Earlier in the day, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the commander of the IRGC Navy, said the trespassing occurred because of technical problems with the navigation systems of the US vessels. He added that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had demanded an apology from the United States for the trespassing.

Meanwhile, the US Navy on May 13 demoted the commander of the 10 American sailors.

The Navy said in a statement that it has lost confidence in Commander Eric Rasch, who was the executive officer of the coastal riverine squadron. It also blamed Rasch for ‘complacency’ and failure to maintain standards in the 10-member unit.