The Iranian regime will target NATO’s missile shield in neighbouring Turkey if it is threatened by military action, Agence France Presse cited the commander of the aerospace division of the terrorist-designated Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday.
‘We are prepared to first target the NATO defence missile shield in Turkey if we are threatened. And then we’ll move on to other targets,’ Amir-Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the state-run Mehr news agency affiliated to the clerical regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.
Although Iranian regime officials have said several times they could retaliate with ballistic missiles against Israel if attacked, Hajizadeh’s remark was the first time the Revolutionary Guards spoke of targeting Turkey.
Hajizadeh, whose unit is in charge of the IRGC’s missile systems, told a crowd of Basij militia members in the western city of Khorramabad that the Iranian regime’s stance now was to ‘threaten in the face of threats,’ in line with a decree this month by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Turkey last year agreed to host an early warning radar system in its southeast as part of NATO’s shield which the United States says is aimed at thwarting missile threats from the Middle East, particularly Iran.