September 06-13
After years of denouncing Washington for war-mongering and launching wars at the drop of a hat, a senior Pasdar officer now insists the Americans are too weak and lacking in the warrior spirit to go to war in Syria.
The commander of the Basij, Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naqdi, dismissed Western threats of launching a military attack on Syria as just so much hollow rhetoric.
“The US does not have the ability to engage in a serious war,” Naqdi said Monday. “The US lacks the economic means and the necessary military spirit to intervene in Syria.”
The remarks came in response to the proposal by President Obama to strike Syria in punishment for that govern-ment’s alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people.
General Naqdi also said terrorists were nurtured by the US and went on to accuse Washington and Israel of being behind the recent spate of bombings in the region. The US and Israel mastermind all these terrorist attacks because they do not want the region to be in peace, Naqdi said.
In the latest terrorist attacks in Iraq on Sunday, car and roadside bombs killed nearly 50 people and injured dozens more.
Lebanon was also hit Friday when two blasts rocked Tripoli, killing more than 40 people.