Iran’s Deterrence Power Kept US from Taking Action: Top General

A senior Iranian military commander says the country’s deterrence power kept Washington from taking any action after Iran shot down an American unmanned aerial vehicle.

Major General Mohammad Baqeri said the nation’s power of deterrence emanates from the “Iranian thought and measures by the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei].”

“If the US made a decision [to take action] against us after the downing of a Global Hawk drone, but stopped short of carrying out its decision under the pretext that several people would be killed [as a result of military action against Iran,] it was because of our deterrence power,” said General Bagheri, the chairman of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.

The top commander said one of the blessings of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran is that Iranian people have succeeded in defending the country and warding off wars despite their problems.

On June 20, the IRGC shot down the advanced US-made RQ-4 Global Hawk over Iran’s territorial waters off the coastal province of Hormozgan after the unmanned aircraft breached the country’s airspace on a spying mission.

In a statement, the IRGC said the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in the central district of Jask County — after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.

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