US military industry is major driver of global environmental destruction: IRGC deputy chief
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Deputy Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says the United States poses the greatest threat to the environment due to its production and testing of weapons, including nuclear ones.
He made the remarks on Sunday in an address to the National Conference on Environmental Risks and National Security of the Islamic Republic of Iran at Tehran’s Imam Hussein University.
“The most important factor regarding deliberate environmental destruction is the weapons that Americans produce,” he said.
“The world’s biggest environmental destroyer is the United States, followed by Western countries that are developing arms.”
Vahidi also warned of the adverse environmental effects of the so-called Golden Dome, a multibillion-dollar missile defense system that the US administration claims will protect the country’s skies from attacks.
He noted that the project is actually ignoring international law and conventions to militarize space.
Nuclear tests, whether those conducted above the atmosphere or those conducted inside the earth, have great risks, including man-made risks, he added.
In October 2025, US President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to immediately start matching other nuclear powers in their testing of nuclear weapons, citing Russia and China.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump said, “because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”
The US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, with Russia second and China a “distant third,” added Trump, whose country last held a full nuclear weapons test in 1992.
Experts warn that reviving live tests could destroy decades of painstaking non-proliferation efforts and invite a cascade of retaliatory tests worldwide, eroding the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).
“We know that nuclear testing has devastating consequences on communities and ecosystems throughout the United States, many of whom are still seeking reparations for harms caused by US nuclear testing during the Cold War,” said Matt Korda, associate director at the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.
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