Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says the Iranian naval forces' sphere of activity stretches thousands of kilometers.
“The Navy ensures security for the country within a range of 5,000 kilometers [off its coasts],” Mehr News Agency quoted him as saying.
Sayyari went on to explicate the Navy’s “twofold responsibility,” identifying the first part as ensuring security within the country’s maritime borders. “Today, we authoritatively monitor all the enemy’s movements. We have not and will not allow anyone to approach our waters.”
Secondly, he said, Iranian naval forces operate in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, which lies 2,500 kilometers away from the Persian Gulf.
Given that the strait hosts a third of the world’s commercial transportation and that countries’ trade activities mainly rely on maritime routes, the Iranian Navy’s forces protect commercial vessels in the strait, he concluded.
Similarly expounding on defense affairs, the Commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces, Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, said the Armed Forces are capable of providing due response, should any threat emerge in “proxy warfare.”
In such a case, the Iranian forces would determinedly stand up to both the threat and the country posing it, he said, adding, “On this matter, we do not stand on ceremony with any country.”
He, however, reiterated that the Iranian military doctrine was pivoted on defense and deterrence. “We do not seek to invade any country. We create appropriate defense capacities in accordance with the threats. We will never stop.”
“In this context, invaders should know that, should they deliver the first blow, our response would make them regret their act,” Pourdastan noted.