Shamkhani: We Will Respond to Any Hostile Action with Equal Force

The Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council stated that the era of 'hit and run' in the global arena is over, and the Islamic Republic will respond to any 'hostile action' against the country with a 'tenfold response.' Ali Shamkhani made these remarks on Tuesday (September 10) during a joint meeting with senior managers of the automotive industry and major parts manufacturers while criticizing U.S. sanctions, describing them as 'oppressive and illegal.' This statement comes a day after Admiral Scott Stern, commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, told reporters at the fleet's headquarters in Bahrain that the U.S. Navy plans to conduct military exercises in September to demonstrate its readiness to ensure freedom of navigation in the waterways of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. He accused Iran of contributing to 'instability' in the region through its activities in the Middle East and its support for Houthi rebels in Yemen, while also announcing military exercises in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. In recent months, U.S. and Israeli officials have emphasized increased pressure on the Islamic Republic, with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman recently stating that his country feels free to attack Iranian-affiliated targets anywhere in response to the 'Iranian threat.' Israel has repeatedly attacked Iranian-affiliated targets in Syria in recent years, and Lieberman responded to a question about whether this would include potential actions against positions in Iraq by saying: 'My point is that we will fight any Iranian threat, regardless of where it is.' On Tuesday, Shamkhani cited the recent missile response to destabilizing actions by a terrorist group in the Iraqi Kurdistan region as an example of the approach that will be taken in response to any threats. He referred to the recent missile attack on the Kurdistan Democratic Party headquarters in the city of Koysinjaq, Iraq, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which left at least 14 dead and 30 wounded, some of whom are reported to be in critical condition. The IRGC stated that the group targeted in the attack was seeking to 'disrupt security and tranquility' in the provinces of West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and Kermanshah. The IRGC also announced on Friday night that it had attacked a group of PJAK members in Marivan, Kurdistan, killing six of them and injuring several others. Nazem Dabagh, the representative of the Kurdistan region of Iraq in Iran, commented on the IRGC's missile attack on the political office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, stating that 'this incident is a reaction to actions taken inside Iran. The Iranian government had previously communicated that we would respond to the actions of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.' Dabagh added in an interview with IRNA that the Kurdistan Democratic Party had recently undertaken actions in the Marivan and Oshnavieh areas. Meanwhile, the central government of Iraq criticized the missile bombardment of the bases of two Iranian Kurdish opposition parties by the IRGC, calling it a 'violation of its sovereignty.' On Tuesday, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military advisor to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, warned the 'enemies' of the Islamic Revolution at a national conference honoring 'veterans of the jihad of resistance' that 'if they violate our Islamic homeland, we will pursue and punish them not only across the borders but also across the seas.' Safavi described the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq as a 'guarantee of 80 years of national security' for Iran. Iranian and Turkish military forces regularly target the bases and military positions of their Kurdish opposition groups in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, accusing them of launching attacks against Iranian and Turkish positions from this region. Since 2016, following the announcement by armed Kurdish opposition parties against the Islamic Republic that they would deploy their military forces 'on a wider scale' and in 'more areas' of Iranian Kurdistan, clashes between their forces and the IRGC have increased. The Islamic Republic refers to armed opposition groups in its western provinces, including Kurdish armed parties, as 'terrorist groups' or 'anti-revolutionaries.' These groups describe their armed struggle against the Islamic Republic as 'defending the rights of Kurds.'