Top Iranian commander says main mission is to stop 'enemy' in Eastern Mediterranean

TEHRAN, Iran

The top commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Tuesday the main mission of Quds Force, the extraterritorial arm of the corps, is to fight the "enemy" in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and expand the battlefront.

Speaking at a commemorative ceremony for IRGC commanders killed in an attack on the Iranian Consulate in Syria last month, Gen. Hossein Salami accused the US of "targeting the Muslim world" and "seeking to dominate Muslims, rob them of their cultural identity and confiscate their wealth.”

"If the enemy (US) infiltrates one Muslim state, it will continue with other Muslim states as well, so this path for the aggressor to advance its hegemony must be blocked," he added.

Iran blamed Israel, a key US ally, for the April 1 consulate attack, in which seven IRGC officers were killed. It launched the first direct attack on its arch-foe on April 13 involving hundreds of drones and missiles.

Salami said Iran is determined to "close the way" for its "enemy" on the eastern flank of the Mediterranean Sea and "expand the battlefield" there so that the “enemy disintegrates,” referring primarily to the US.

By these actions, the IRGC commander said, Iran seeks to protect its own national security and that of other Muslim nations, adding that Muslim lands "should not be a battleground for aggressors."

"We face a common enemy, have a common destiny and shared causes, so we cannot live apart," Salami added.

The Iranian general warned against the deployment of forces by "extra-regional arrogant forces" in Muslim countries, saying it "brings nothing but poverty and massacres."

Tensions between Iran and the US have heightened in the wake of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip and related regional developments, including attacks on US and Israeli interests in the region by Iran-allied groups.

Iranian officials have repeatedly accused the Joe Biden administration of being equally complicit in the Gaza war, where nearly 34,800 people have been killed, for providing weapons to Israel.

*Muhammed Yasin Gungor from Istanbul contributed to this report