Threat from Khamenei's Representative Regarding the Explosion of the IRGC Bus: We Will Kill 10 People for Each Martyr

The representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced that for each individual killed in the explosion of the IRGC bus, the military forces of the Islamic Republic will kill 10 members of the opposition groups in Sistan and Baluchestan. According to IRNA, Abdollah Hajizadeh stated on Tuesday, February 19, "The revenge from the terrorist elements of Khach will be carried out in due time, and we have agreed that for each martyr, 10 terrorists will be killed." He made these remarks during a memorial ceremony for the IRGC forces killed in the bus explosion. Hajizadeh did not provide further details about this threat. Iranian officials label the group "Jaish al-Adl," which claimed responsibility for the attack, as a "terrorist" group. However, this group claims that its actions aim to defend the rights of Sunni Muslims in Sistan and Baluchestan. Last Wednesday, following a "suicide attack" on a bus carrying IRGC members on the Khach-Zahidan route, 27 IRGC members were killed and 12 were injured. Meanwhile, Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces, stated on Tuesday that "two members of the terrorist team were Pakistani, and the suicide bomber was a person named Hafiz Mohammad Ali from Pakistan, with another individual also from Pakistan present." Pakpour mentioned the arrest of several "elements" of this attack, including a woman, without specifying the number. The Jaish al-Adl group has not responded to this report but denied the IRGC's media claims about the arrest of its members on Tuesday night. On Sunday, Yahya Rahim Safavi, military assistant to Ayatollah Khamenei, implicitly threatened that if the Pakistani government does not act against the armed opposition groups, Iranian military forces will attack them on Pakistani soil. He stated, "The powerful armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the IRGC Ground Forces consider it their right to act in their revolutionary mission for the defense and security of Iran's borders and to suppress the perpetrators of these criminal terrorists." On the same day, Shahrayar Heydari, the director general of border affairs at the Ministry of Interior, said, "If Pakistan cannot confront terrorist groups, the Islamic Republic has explicitly stated that it has the capability to confront these anti-security centers within Pakistan and can easily deal with them." The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Tehran on Sunday, February 17, in response to the attack on the IRGC bus, and the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament warned Pakistan that failure to act against the armed opposition groups on its soil would severely damage the level of cooperation between the two countries. The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned the Pakistani ambassador several times after similar incidents in the border areas between Iran and Pakistan. Iranian officials have repeatedly criticized Pakistan's performance and called for actions by its government to secure the border areas with Iran, but the Pakistani government has generally not reacted to these warnings and criticisms. Concurrently with these developments between Iran and Pakistan, Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, began his Asian tour on Sunday with a visit to Pakistan, where contracts worth twenty billion dollars for Riyadh's investment in Pakistan were signed on the first day of his visit. Imran Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who has visited Saudi Arabia twice since last summer, expressed gratitude for Riyadh's support during the hosting of the Saudi Crown Prince, stating, "Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are now elevating their relations to a level that has never been seen before." On Tuesday, Mohammad Marani, commander of the Quds Headquarters of the IRGC, threatened in a statement that "we will take revenge for the blood of our loved ones from the terrorist-supporting governments in the region." Iranian officials have previously labeled Saudi Arabia as a "terrorist-supporting" government in the region and accused it of supporting the perpetrators of the attack on the IRGC bus, but Saudi Arabia has denied these accusations.