Iran to upgrade its military doctrine in face of new, evolving security threats

Tabnak – Having been faced with a variety of security and challenges since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran has adopted a flexible view to its security, trying to adapt its security and military strategy with different conditions of different times. A top Iranian military official now talks about a new possible shift in Iran’s security approach.

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri said while the country’s military doctrine is based on defense, the Armed Forces may take an offensive approach at the tactical level to preserve the country’s national interests.

“Based on the teachings of Islam and the Islamic Republic’s causes, we have no intention of invading or even casting a greedy eye on the territory of any country…,” Major General Baqeri told reporters in Tehran on Sunday.

Iran’s military strategies are meant to defend the independence and territorial integrity and national interests of the nation but this does not mean that the country’s Armed Forces would only take passive approaches at operational and tactical levels, he added.

"While we cast no greedy eye on the interests and soil of another country, we may have an offensive approach in protecting our own interests, so that the aliens, by observing its outcome and evidence, would banish the thought of violating the interests of our country,” the commander went on to say.

Separately, Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari, the commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces, said the force had turned into a “forward-moving and offensive” one.

He said units of the Army’s Ground Forces no more maintained a “traditional” standing and had turned into “rapid action forces,” “offensive, forward-moving brigades,” and “mechanized, forward-moving units.” As such, the Iranian military, he said, no more needed to practice asymmetric warfare in defense.

“To protect the Islamic homeland, Iran’s Armed Forces no longer need the asymmetric approach, and we are at a stage where we can defend our homeland and the establishment using a good offensive approach,” Ahmadi added.

The “offensive” component was inaugurated in the country’s defensive strategy for the first time last December, when the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) held the main and final stage of massive exercises in the Persian Gulf.