The deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) said that President Donald Trump’s statements at the Riyadh summit was only a confession to Iran’s superior power in the region. "50 world leaders gathered in Saudi Arabia and their only word was that Iran enjoys an uncontrollable power, and it is an honor for us (Iran)," Brigadier General Hossein Salami stressed. He warned that any actions against Iran would have dire consequences. Separately, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (S.N.S.C.), said the multi-billion-dollar U.S. arms sale would not ensure Saudi Arabia’s security. “Stockpiling weapons has never created security and what happened to Saddam Hussein’s rule in Iraq is proof to this assertion,” he said during a visit to Moscow. Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military aide to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, echoed a similar remark – suggesting that the huge arms deal would increase tension and instability in the Middle East.

Comment: Despite Iranian leaders’ defiant rhetoric, there appears to be a growing concern in Tehran that the Trump administration is working with its regional allies to push back against Iran’s growing influence in the region. Iranian officials and media outlets appear to be particularly troubled by Riyadh’s decision to invite leaders of about 50 Muslim countries to attend a summit with the American president. “The US and the Zionist and al-Saud regimes have created sensitive and complicated conditions in the region and have hatched dangerous plots to continue crisis, war and bloodshed in the region within the framework of an Arab NATO," Iran’s Defense Minister General Hossein Deghan warned last week. In addition, Iranian military leaders fear that the Trump administration’s increasing military involvement in Iraq and Syria could reverse the latest gains by Iran and its regional allies in Syria and Iraq. Last Friday, the U.S. military for the first time conducted an air raid against Iranian-led forces in southern Syria.

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