Pointing to IRGC’s operation against a US drone on Thursday, he said, “any enemy who trespasses our countries’ borders will not have safety and will be destroyed,” he said on Thursday while addressing a local event in Kordestan province.
“At dawn today, the IRGC’s Air Force bravely downed a US spy drone, which had intruded our border, violating our national security. This is how the Iranian nation deals with its enemies,” he said.
The IRGC’s chief said Iranian frontiers are “our red line,” and that the downing of the American drone sent a “transparent and firm message” that the defenders of Iranian borders would react to any act of aggression by any outsider with a “decisive and final” strike.
He reaffirmed that Iran is not seeking war with anyone, but stands fully ready to firmly respond to any aggression.
In a statement issued early Thursday, the IRGC said the US-made Global Hawk surveillance drone was brought down by its Air Force near the Kouh-e Mobarak region — which sits in the central district of Jask County — after the aircraft violated Iranian airspace.
A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, confirmed on Thursday that an American military drone had been shot down but claimed that it has been shot in “international airspace” over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has said that the country’s aerial, maritime and land borders constitute a red line.
Speaking on the sidelines of a security forum in Russia on Tuesday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani stressed that the country would exercise all its efforts to defend its territorial waters and airspace.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has said that it will soon announce further details of its Thursday operation.
MNA/4646108
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