Defense Min: US strengthens presence in P. Gulf to make up for defeat of exit from Iraq

Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistical Affairs said here Wednesday strengthened US presence in Persian Gulf is a hurried and disparate move, aimed at making up for US defeat of being forced to evacuate military forces from Iraq. According to the IRNA Wednesday night news team, IRNA Political Desk reporter had an exclusive interview with the IRI Defense Minister, IRGC Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, Wednesday evening on the sidelines of Tehran National Aviation Industry Exhibition, excerpts of which is presented hereunder.  In response to IRNA’s question on the reason for intensified US presence in the Persian Gulf, the high brass IRI general added, “The US policy is multi-faceted and yet quite aimless.”  He added, “After facing the Iraqi nation’s severe stand on need for evacuation of the US forces from their soil, in order to pretend that they had not faced any defeat there, the Americans tried to make up for that defeat resorting to other means.”  The defense minister said, “They are trying to expand the dimensions of their military presence in the region and in order to achieve that goal, and they have established contacts with some regional countries, but the presence of the Americans in their soils have had no benefit for them, save for trouble.”  He reiterated, “The US forces get exhausted due to long missions in the region and the intensifying of public hatred against their presence in the region. These are among the aftermaths of their military presence and any effort aimed at further expansion of their presence, too, would yield similar results.”  Vahidi added, “Due to the doomed end of some regional US satellite countries, such as Egypt and Tunisia, the other countries have got their lessons real well and therefore, we think they do not want to try that defeated experience anew.”