Iran is ready to help “train” the Syrian army if Damascus seeks such assistance, the commander of the Islamic republic’s army ground forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, was quoted as saying on Sunday.
“As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with the training, but won’t have any active involvement in the operations,” he said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.
Iran is to build a new naval base on its coast of the Gulf of Oman. The location is Pasabandar, near Iran’s border with Pakistan.
The Iranian Navy is establishing a new naval base at the country’s Southeastern borders along the coast of the Sea of Oman in a bid to strengthen the country’s line of defense, Iran’s top Navy commander said. “The naval base which is under-construction is located in our country’s far east coasts in the Gwatr Gulf along the borders with Pakistan,” Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on Sunday.
Iran’s Deputy Defense Minister Naser Dehqan warned against what he called “the enemy’s attempts” to influence the upcoming presidential election in Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported. Urging the Iranian nation to remain vigilant, Dehqan said that “We should make every effort to hold a sound election, under a calm political atmosphere with the high participation of all groups (of Iranian people),” according to the report. Protests gripped Tehran and other Iranian cities after the June 2009 presidential election amid claims of election-rig in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
