WarSclerotic

‘Don’t even think about it,’ Ahmadinejad taunts.

Pres Ahmadinejad at Army Day parade (AP Photo)

Iran’s armed forces are so strong that enemies should not even harbor the thought of attacking the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted Sunday, during an annual military parade commemorating National Army Day, according to Tehran Times.

Ahmadinejad called Israel the center of conspiracy and conflict in the region and asked the United States to stop supporting the Zionist regime and to allow the Palestinian nation to determine their own destiny.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad directed the United Stated and its allies to withdraw from the region, saying their presence has brought nothing but death and destruction.

This is not a request, it is an order, this is the will of regional countries… they should go back to their homes and leave regional countries in charge of regional affairs,” he stated, according to Tehran Times.

Masked Iranian troops at Army Day parade (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said Iranian forces are well prepared to destroy US forces in the region should it venture upon a military attack on that country.

Speaking on the sidelines of Tehran’s Nuclear Conference, Iran’s top military commander brushed aside what he said were threats by the Obama administration against Iran .

Iran’s armed forces are quite prepared to destroy US forces and their equipments in earnest,’ General Firouzabadi said, according to Hamsayeh.net.

He added, ‘No US soldier will go back home alive if the US decides to attack Iran.’

During the National Army Day parade just outside Tehran, the Iranian military showcased their latest domestically produced long-range surface-to-surface Ghadr missile, according to Iranian Press TV.

The Iranian military also unveiled their long-range S-200 air defense system, which they claim has been exclusively designed to defend large areas against aerial attacks, including assaults by high-speed and high-altitude aircraft, Iranian Press TV reported.

Iran already has a missile armament capable of wreaking havoc, but its air, sea, and ground forces are out of date and badly in need of maintenance, according to a survey of websites devoted to military topics.

Iranian version of US Hawk missile (AP Photo)

GlobalFirepower, a military statistics website, which cites the CIA as one of its sources, ranks Iran 18th in military power worldwide behind Turkey (10), Israel (11), Pakistan (15), and Egypt (17) but ahead of Saudi Arabia (24), Iraq (37), Afghanistan (40),and Lebanon (42).

According to GlobalFirepower, Iran’s defense budget was $6,300,000,000 and it currently has 540,000 active military personnel.

Iran owns one of the largest missile inventories in the Middle East and has developed an infrastructure capable of building missiles indigenously, according to NationMaster, a website specializing in military data and analysis.

Iran recently flight-tested the Shehab-3 missile, capable of reaching Israel, and there are reports about the development of even longer-range missiles.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Sunday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned in a secret three-page memo to White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran’s progress toward nuclear arms.

This entry was posted on April 19, 2010 at 2:29 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.