IRGC: Neighbors will be considered ‘hostile’ if their territory used to attack Iran

An Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander warned on Tuesday that neighboring countries would be deemed “hostile” if their territory were used to launch attacks on Iran, as a US aircraft carrier strike group moved into Middle Eastern waters.

“Neighboring countries are our friends, but if their soil, airspace or waters are used against Iran, they will be considered hostile,” Mohammad Akbarzadeh, political deputy of the IRGC’s naval forces, was quoted as saying by the state-linked Fars news agency. He added that the message had been conveyed to regional states.

The United States, which maintains several bases in the Middle East, has not ruled out military intervention against Iran over its crackdown on anti-government protests – which rights groups say left thousands of people dead – and President Donald Trump has dispatched the USS Abraham Lincoln to the area “just in case.”

Akbarzadeh said Iran did not want war but was “fully prepared,” warning that Tehran would “not retreat even a millimeter” if conflict erupted.

He also appeared to threaten the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway through which around 20 percent of global oil supplies pass – a threat Iran has repeatedly made in the past but never carried out.

“Iran has real-time intelligence over the Strait of Hormuz, above and below the surface, and the security of this strategic passage depends on Tehran’s decisions,” Akbarzadeh said. “We do not want the world economy to suffer, but the Americans and their supporters will not benefit from a war they start.”

Since Iran launched its crackdown on protests earlier this month, accompanied by a blanket internet blackout, Trump has given mixed signals on intervention, which some opponents of the clerical leadership see as the only way to bring about change.

The New York Times reported that Trump has received multiple intelligence briefings indicating that the Iranian government’s grip on power is at its weakest since the 1979 revolution.

Rights groups have described the crackdown as the deadliest ever against protests in Iran, and warn that compiling tolls has been complicated by an almost three-week internet blackout they say is aimed at masking the extent of the repression.

In an updated toll, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said it had confirmed that 6,126 people had been killed, including 5,777 protesters, 86 minors, 214 members of the security forces and 49 bystanders.

But the group, which has an extensive network of sources inside Iran and has tracked the protests on a daily basis since they began, added it was still investigating another 17,091 possible fatalities.

At least 41,880 people have been arrested, it said.