Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani has stated that the Middle East would be "a safer place without the US", stating that Washington should withdraw its troops from the region entirely and not just from Syria. He argued that even US officials have acknowledged that getting involved in the region's wars was a mistake, apparently referring to US President Donald Trump's recent criticism of past US administrations' Middle East policies.
Commenting on the recent statement by the POTUS, Shamkhani alleged that his administration has realised that "the equation of power and politics in the Middle East has changed" and that the US can no longer claim the leading position in the region.
"Washington has now two options: either to pretend to be a superpower by incurring huge expenses, or to adopt a realistic policy, accept the realities and save itself from the costs of the exposed plot", he said.
'Iran is Defeating Its Enemies' - IRGC Commander
Major General Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), has stated that judging by the current state of affairs, the Islamic Republic is "moving forward" and "defeating" its enemies. He added that Iran's "will" can't be changed by outside forces and therefore the victorious "trend" will continue.
Salami's statements come months after Iran's domestically made Khordad-3 air defence system downed an American RQ-4 drone that violated Iranian airspace and failed to respond to multiple warnings. Tehran later stated that it also had a manned P-8 Poseidon spy plane in its crosshairs, but opted to spare it.
Recently, in September, the US accused Iran of attacking Saudi Arabia oil facilities, which were covered by American Patriot air defence systems, despite Yemen’s Houthis claiming responsibility for the attack and Tehran denying its involvement. Riyadh itself insists that Iran sponsored the attack, as the drones used in it were allegedly of Iranian origin.