News - Middle East: The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the two imposed wars on Iran in the 1980s and earlier this year “consolidated” the country’s deterrent capability and power-building in the region.

Speaking on Monday, Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesman for the IRGC, said the Iranian nation emerged victorious in the 1980-1988 Iraqi-imposed war and the Israeli-US aggression in June 2025, both of which were launched to destroy and disintegrate the Islamic Republic.

"In both wars, the enemy was defeated, and Iran not only did not lose a single inch of its territory, but consolidated its deterrent capability and power-building.”

Naeini also said the enemy assumed that Iran was weak and that it could trigger riots during both wars, but the Iranian nation won the battles relying on its defense capabilities, popular mobilization, and wise leadership.

The eight-year war, which inflicted extensive damage on Iran’s infrastructure and left hundreds of martyrs, led the country to achieve self-sufficiency in producing strategic weapons and become the region's leading missile power, he said.

Iran faced a severe shortage of resources during the 1980s’ war, but in the recent illegal aggression, the Islamic Republic’s intelligence and military capabilities completely changed the dynamics of the battle and consolidated the country's authority in the region.

He made the remarks after the Sacred Defense Week, which commemorates the anniversary of the war launched by former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1980 in a bid to seize Iran's resource-rich Khuzestan province, less than two years after the Islamic Revolution.

With the army mostly in disarray, Iranians closed ranks under the leadership of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as they rushed to the warfronts to push back Iraqi forces and liberate occupied territories. 

The war ended in 1988 with a ceasefire deal, with the Iraqi dictator failing to achieve any of his goals and Iran not conceding an inch of its territory. 

The United States and its European and regional allies assisted the former Iraqi regime with military and intelligence support during the war.    

The US also joined the Israeli regime in bombing Iran's nuclear facilities early this year.

Israel launched the blatant and unprovoked aggression against Iran on June 13, triggering a 12-day war that killed at least 1,064 people in the country, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians.

In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.

On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the terrorist assault.

‘Iran fired over 500 missiles toward occupied lands'

Also speaking on Monday, Major General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a senior military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said Iran launched more than 500 missiles toward the occupied territories in the course of the recent war, causing extensive damage to Israeli infrastructure, including refineries, power plants, and research centers.

At least 16 Israeli pilots were killed in Iranian missile strikes on the Zionist regime’s pilot training center, he added.

The impact of several missiles was so powerful that it resembled an earthquake, with tremors felt within a three-kilometer radius.

Safavi further stated that Israel has withheld information about the extent of damage and casualties resulting from Iranian strikes.