Baqeri made the remarks on Monday, on the sidelines of a rally marking the anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Tehran.
“The situation of the Armed Forces is better than ever and they stand ready to respond to any threat,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of talks between Iran and the United States, Baqeri stated Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei recently announced Tehran’s position in that regard.
Speaking on Friday, Ayatollah Khamenei cited the experience of 2015 when Iran and six other countries, including the US, signed the now-dormant Joint Comprehensive Plant of Action (JCPOA) after two years of negotiations, only to be discarded by US President Donald Trump in 2018.
He added, “Negotiating with such a government is unwise, unintelligent and dishonorable, and there should be no negotiation with it.”
On Saturday, Trump warned that he would prefer to make a deal with Iran rather than “bombing the hell out of it.”
The threat came days after he restored his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which he practiced in his first presidential term after unilaterally withdrawing Washington from the JCPOA.
Additionally on Monday, Defense Minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said Iranians do not negotiate under conditions of sanctions and threats.
“It is not possible at all to negotiate with the new US administration, and we do not accept them,” he told reporters during the Islamic Revolution’s 46th anniversary march.
“Our viewpoint is the same as that of the Leader. Did the Americans stick to their previous agreements?”
Asked about the current preparedness of the Armed Forces, Nasirzadeh added threats are “nothing new,” vowing to respond to “any insolent act by the enemy in the strongest possible way.”
He was further asked whether Iran has a plan to increase the range of its missiles to more than 2,000 kilometers. The Armed Forces, he emphasized, will do whatever is necessary to ensure the security of the Islamic Republic.
