Brigadier General Reza Talaei-Nik, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics, said the foundation of Iran’s defensive power rests on beliefs, spiritual strength and soft power. “The main component of Iran’s defensive power is reliance on divine faith, the spirit of martyrdom, courage and popular backing, and these elements, alongside technological capabilities and weapons and equipment advances, have created a unique power-building combination,” he said.

He said the defence doctrines of the two leaders of the Islamic Revolution — Imam Khomeini and the martyred Imam Khamenei — were built on theology, the popular mobilisation of defence and the harnessing of faith as the basis for superiority. The martyred leader had set those doctrines in a complete framework for the current and future generations, he added.

Talaei-Nik said the effectiveness of that defence thinking was “completely evident and tangible in the recent victories as well as the eight years of sacred defence,” and that reliance on those doctrines and the “fate-determining strategies of leadership” had guaranteed past victories and would do so in the future.

MNA