Iran to pursue US troops in region, IRGC says

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says Iran will pursue US soldiers and commanders who have fled their bases in regional countries following what it described as devastating Iranian attacks.

The spokesman for the IRGC’s Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters said on Wednesday that US personnel had been sheltering in various locations across the region after Iran destroyed a number of their bases, News.Az reports, citing Iran's Englsh-language Press TV.

“We ask the people of the region’s countries to report their whereabouts, and at the same time, for their own security, to demand the expulsion of Americans from the region,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari said.

In a separate message, Zolfaghari said the United States was seeking talks with Iran to bring an end to the confrontation and to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the Persian Gulf that Iran has tightly controlled since the start of the US-Israeli attacks on 28 February.

“Listen carefully. Just as desperate as you are to avoid a prolonged war, the resilience of our nation and the strength of our armed forces grow stronger with each passing moment,” he said.

“The situation in the Strait will not return to what it was. Whatever we decide will happen. With trust in God, the path is closed to the oppressors and their allies.”

He said Iran had a “clear, transparent and explicit” rule for transit through the Strait: anyone associated with its enemies would have no right of passage, and the authority to grant permits rested solely with Iran.

US President Donald Trump said on 24 March that he was considering talks with Iran to end the confrontation, which many observers say has placed him in a precarious position.

Sources told Press TV on Wednesday that Iran had rejected a US offer for talks and its conditions, saying Tehran had its own terms for ending the conflict, including a complete halt to the attacks and firm guarantees they would not be repeated.

News.Az 

By Emil Kaziyev