A senior Iranian military commander says the United States and Israel are well aware of their high susceptibility to Iran’s retaliatory strikes in case of an aggression against the Islamic Republic.

Deputy Head of Iran's Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday that the US and Israel are in no position to launch a military strike against Iran due to their particular vulnerability to Tehran’s counterattacks.

The senior Iranian commander also stressed that the Islamic Republic brushes aside Washington’s carrot and stick approach toward Tehran as Iran pursues its elevated aspirations.

The US war and peace signals are either pointless or lack enough credence when it comes to policymaking, Jazayeri pointed out.

The US government is in such a desperate situation that even Americans have been pouring into the streets across the country to protest against the capitalist system and chant slogans in support of the Islamic Republic of Iran, added the Iranian general.

On February 5, US President Barack Obama warned against the serious risks of a military campaign against the Islamic Republic and underlined diplomacy as the favored solution to the impasse over Iran’s nuclear issue.

"Any kind of additional military activity inside the Persian Gulf is disruptive and has a big effect on us. It could have a big effect on oil prices. We've still got troops in Afghanistan, which borders Iran. And so our preferred solution here is diplomatic," Obama said.

Despite the widely publicized claims by the US, Israel and some of their European allies that Iran's nuclear program may include a military aspect, Iran insists the civilian nature of its atomic program, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran's civilian nuclear program has diverted towards nuclear weapons production.

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News ID 181473