The IRGC Warns of War “Beyond the Region”

Prior to the February 28 U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of a “regional war” should Iran come under attack. In line with that threat, the regime in Tehran retaliated by targeting Iran’s Arab neighbors and even Azerbaijan. Now trapped in a state of neither war nor peace, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is warning that the conflict could spread “beyond the region” – a possible reference to renewed attacks in the eastern Mediterranean, for which there is already precedent in a March 2 Iranian drone strike against a United Kingdom air base in Cyprus.

• May 21: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated Javan released an IRGC statement:
  • “The American-Zionist enemy, which has failed to learn from its repeated major strategic defeats at the hands of the Islamic Revolution and has once again resorted to threats, should know this: Although they attacked us with the full capabilities of two armies … we did not bring all the capacities of the Islamic Revolution into action against them. Now, if aggression against Iran is repeated, the regional war that was promised will this time spread beyond the region, and our crushing blows will cast you into utter ruin in places you cannot even imagine. We are men of war, and you will witness our power on the battlefield, not in hollow statements in cyberspace.”

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