Israel’s 20-year plot failed to destroy Iran’s missile power, disintegrate nation: Top commander

The commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces says a plot hatched by the Israeli regime over more than 20 years and deployed during Tel Aviv and Washington’s 12-day war on Iran in June failed to cripple the Islamic Republic’s missile capabilities and fracture the country.

Speaking on Tuesday during an event in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Brigadier General Ali Jahanshahi said the war, which was backed militarily and technologically by the US-led military alliance of NATO, had been engineered by the regime with strategic goals, including disarmament and political collapse, none of which materialized.

“The Zionist regime imposed this war to eliminate Iran’s missile power and pursue disintegration of the nation, but it did not reach its ominous goals,” he said, pointing to sustained defense readiness, missile deterrence, and drone operations as key pillars of Iran’s response during the assault.

Jahanshahi placed the war within a broader campaign of pressure that followed Iran’s Sacred Defense (1980–1988), noting its similarity to the Western-backed conflict imposed on the country by Iraq

He noted that adversaries have since used “cultural infiltration, human-rights accusations, the nuclear case, punitive sanctions, and finally the direct military confrontation [from June 23 to 25]” to attempt to destabilize the Islamic Republic.

On June 13, Israel launched an unprovoked war against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.

More than a week later, the United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.

Citing remarks by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the commander said the operation was not a short-term escalation, but part of a long-built strategy.

“The enemy spent over two decades designing this war to destroy our missile capacity and weaken our Armed Forces. But by God’s grace and due to the strength of our forces, and Iran’s missile and drone power, it was defeated,” he stated.

The official also referenced a historical US policy proposal advocating the breakup of regional states.

He noted that former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had previously promoted fragmenting five countries, including Iran, using the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire as inspiration, but the Islamic Republic proved unswayed by such ambitions.

Turning back to the US-Israeli aggression, the commander said that although the adversary managed to achieve tactical accuracy in certain intelligence operations, it failed to convert those operations into strategic success.

“Despite full backing from the US and NATO, the enemy accepted a ceasefire after a humiliating defeat,” he said, referring to both Tel Aviv and Washington’s pleading for cessation of Iran’s retaliatory strikes towards the end of the war.

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