Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday announced a heightened military posture in the war with the US, saying that new attacks on the country will “meet a faster, heavier and more painful response.“
“If they haven’t understood by now, they should understand before it’s too late that the rules of the game have changed and that from now on, any violation of Iran’s interests and security will receive a ‘faster, heavier, and more painful’ response,” Ghalibaf said in a post on Telegram. He has warned that Iranian retaliation will no longer be “proportionate”.
Ghalibaf also conceded that Iran faces severe economic pressures amid US-led sweeping sanctions and the campaign of ‘strangulation’ and isolation efforts.
“Severe fluctuations in the exchange rate, inflation, unemployment, and market management are fundamental challenges that have put serious pressure on people’s livelihoods,” Ghalibaf said.
He also laid out that the Islamic Republic must aim to bolster domestic production and use technology to “devise short-term and permanent solutions.” Iran’s military has all along touted that it never stopped manufacturing missiles and drones, even as US-Israeli bombs decimated many industrial sites.
Ghalibaf’s words come a day after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it attacked three American military ships and three oil tankers using an “unauthorized” route in the Strait of Hormuz. Also, in the latest:
Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned U.S. vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that the U.S. military dismissed as a “total lie.”
The US military earlier on Saturday had struck three Iranian oil tankers, M/T Downy, M/T Stark 1, and M/T Kylo – in a major first of the conflict (that is, a US attack on civilian vessels).
Hellbound and Down 