“Today, enemies, who are fearful of a war with Iran, have taken the path of economic terrorism…,” Major General Baqeri said, addressing an open session of the parliament on Tuesday.

IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

“We have repeatedly warned the enemies that if they invade this country, they will be treated like the American drone and the British oil tanker, and that the result of this invasion will be captivity and defeat,” the top commander said.

“We say to the neighboring countries that we have no enmity with you. Countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are Muslim countries that have lost their path and should side with Iran so that the regional security will be preserved,” he added.

“(Now that) we have an independent defense industry in Iran today, these (military advances) belong to the Muslim world and everyone should know that regional security is provided by the cooperation of regional countries,” Major General Baqeri stated.

He also censured renegade of the signatories to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

He said that the states which supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1980-88 imposed war are those who have reneged on the July 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

European countries including the UK, France and Germany were the suppliers of chemical weapons to Saddam, the top commander noted.

When Iraqi war planes targeted city of Sardasht in northwestern Iranian province of West Azarbaijan on June 28, 1987, with chemical weapons, over 100 citizens of the city were martyred and thousands of the people were wounded by deadly chemical attacks.

Iraq’s eight years of the imposed war claimed lives of 230,000 Iranian soldiers and left near 600,000 war-disabled. While, about 43,000 Iranians were captivated by the Iraqi forces and many others gone missing.

At the Majlis session, Baqeri hailed the country’s power developed during the past 40 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

He further referred to the eight-year resistance of the Syrian nation against the terrorists, Lebanon’s stability and near five-year resistance of the Yemenis to the Saudi aggression as measures taken modelling upon Iran’s Sacred Defense policies.

National Sacred Defense Week, which started in Iran as of Shahrivar 31 (according to the Iranian year) falling on September 22 this year, marks invasion of the Iraqi Ba’ath regime on Iran in 1980 when an eight-year imposed war began against Iran by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who was later executed on 30 December 2006.