Ali Fadavi: We Do Not Consider Americans to Have Even an Ounce of Power

Ali Fadavi, the commander of the Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, stated that the United States "does not have the capability to launch a military attack on Iran" and that the Islamic Republic "does not consider Americans to have even an ounce of power." According to a report on Sunday, April 24, by ISNA news agency, Fadavi, speaking at a congress, remarked: "Currently, there are 50 American ships in the Persian Gulf, which, along with their allied ships, total 63, but we do not consider Americans to have any power at all." In his remarks, this IRGC commander recalled the events of "Tabas" and the attack on the U.S. embassy in 1979 in Iran, interpreting them as "God's calamity." He claimed that despite the "expansion of America's enmity and that of other oppressors" against Iran, "the divine promise is that truth will prevail over falsehood." Fadavi also spoke about the military capabilities of the Islamic Republic, adding that "Americans have become certain that in this revolution, there is strength and capability that they will never achieve victory against." He further stated, "Americans cannot understand many of the things that exist in Iran, the most important of which is that in American philosophy, there is no God, prophet, martyr, martyrdom, or Imam." In recent years, Fadavi has been one of the military commanders who has made sharp and explicit attacks against the U.S. and its officials. During Fadavi's command of the IRGC Navy, verbal tensions between the IRGC naval forces and the U.S. in the region have increased, and the IRGC Navy has detained foreign sailors, particularly American forces, several times in the Persian Gulf. The latest of these detentions involved a group of American sailors on January 11, 2016. At that time, Fadavi declared the detention of American soldiers as a "duty of the IRGC Navy" and stated that "we have been performing this duty for many years." He added that "this detention is the fourth detention of American and British military personnel in Iranian waters." Ali Khamenei also recently described the detention of American sailors in the Persian Gulf as a "brave and commendable act" and praised it. The Supreme Leader also awarded the IRGC Navy commander and four other commanders involved in the detention of two American vessels with the Order of Fat'h. The detention of American sailors and the broadcast of their arrest footage by the media became a part of the U.S. presidential election campaigns, with Republican candidates criticizing Barack Obama's policy toward Iran.