Commander of the Aerospace Division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh made the remarks on Wednesday at Ferdowsi University in the northeastern city of Mashhad, adding that “Shahed-129 is [just] one of Iran’s 10 unmanned aircraft that can fly deep into Tel Aviv.”
He further underscored the tremendous progress Iranian defense industries have made in the field of air defense equipment, pointing to the Shahed (witness) 129 drone as one of the key products of such advancement.
“This aircraft can continuously fly for 24 hours with a 1,700-kilometer operating radius” and has been designed for border patrol objectives.
Saying that Iran air defense equipment are currently active within a 2,000-kilometer radius, General Hajizadeh further explained, “That’s because our enemies are nearby, and to put it more simply, they are not worth the cost of more expensive missiles.”
He then elaborated that “our current situation” has caused our enemies to have bases in this vicinity, “so shorter-range missiles will satisfy our needs.”
Commenting on Russians failure to deliver the S-300 air defense systems that Iran had purchased from them, the IRGC commander insisted that although the Iranian Defense Ministry will follow up on the legal aspect of the issue, what is more significant about the case is that “we once again realized that we must rely on our own capabilities and not depend on other countries.”
The Iranian commander also recounted the conditions under which Iranian forces fought off the eight-year aggression imposed on the nation by former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, in the 1980s, underscoring the fact that the nation was totally alone in its defense effort.
“At the same time, Iraq was supported by more than 30 countries and used all sorts of Western and Eastern weaponry as well as chemical agents against us. The evidence to this case is that during our eight-year Sacred Defense we took in prisoners of war from 11 nations,” he said.
The senior military officer went on to reiterate that Iran is currently facing an economic war waged by the nation’s enemies, noting that “what has remained constant in the 35 years [since the Islamic Revolution] is the unified stance of the West and the [global] hegemonic system against the Islamic establishment.”