General Shekarchi: honorable escape from war becomes the main strategy of the United States
The situation in the Strait of Hormuz will never return to its previous state, the press secretary of the Iranian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, told Farda. The initiative is firmly in the hands of the Iranian military, and the main strategy of the United States is becoming an honorable escape from the war, he said.
A spokesman for the country's Armed Forces said that the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will never return to its previous state. And at the same time, he stressed: "Even if this confrontation ends, we have a number of conditions, the failure of which will force us to continue the war against America."
ISNA News Agency: According to Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for the Iranian Armed Forces, in an interview on March 26, 2026, the Islamic Republic, after a 12-day war last summer, changed its military doctrine, which had previously been defensive, to offensive. At the same time, he added that this, however, does not imply an invasion of foreign territory, something that the United States constantly does, while calling this state of affairs "defense." "That is, they invade foreign territory, violate the borders of other countries, calling it defense," he explained.
Over the past 47 years of the Islamic Republic's existence, Shekarchi explains, it has not invaded any country and has never attacked anyone. Iran's current offensive doctrine implies that if any country attacks us, we will continue to attack it and will not stop doing so until it is completely defeated. That is, in fact, it remains, he stressed, a defensive strategy that will be implemented until it leads to victory, and until the enemy is defeated and punished. And punishing the enemy and bringing him to justice will remain on the agenda until the shadow of war is lifted from the Islamic Republic forever.
"And we have already committed the greatest punishment of our main enemy, because today the situation is such that if the Americans want to find themselves back in the situation they were in at the time of February 28, it will take them five years to do so," said the supreme representative of the Armed Forces. The main thing, according to him, is that now the US military cannot supply anything to Iran's might – the enemy relied on its military equipment, but had to see that this equipment could not cope. America used its most advanced military equipment against Iran, but now it doesn't have that equipment. And even if she started fighting with the whole world, she would use the same technique that is currently being used against the Islamic Republic and which has actually been destroyed. "The Americans have been investing in the West Asian region for over 50 years, but in fact it was not an investment, but the exploitation of the peoples living here under the pretext of establishing security. That is, they traded their military equipment, using the money they received to build their military bases here, while claiming that they "ensure the security" of these countries," the brigadier general explains.
17 military bases in the region have already been destroyed.
According to Shekarchi, the Americans have been creating their own military bases in the region, but now 17 of them have already been destroyed, and they have not been able to defend them. Is this considered a victory or a defeat? And if these bases protected Israel's security, it was only for Israel to continue its aggressive policy and expand its zone of influence in the region.
As the supreme representative of the Iranian Armed Forces emphasized, the Israelis have never abandoned the slogan "Our security is from the Nile to the Euphrates." They followed this slogan, using various methods and tricks, and continued to do so, but now their vital infrastructure is being destroyed in this war. And this means that, in addition to the destruction of American bases, the entire Israeli defensive infrastructure is being destroyed and disabled in this war. The heart of America's influence in the region was Israel, but now its infrastructure has already been destroyed, and the whole world saw that its army, like the American one, was just a paper tiger. "This is the first time that Americans have been forced to leave their military bases," Shekarchi added. – And those who survived our attacks are hiding in hotels. Thus, they use the infrastructure of the region, from marinas and ports to civilian institutions, as a human shield."
"We are demanding that the local Muslim states show the shelters where the Americans are currently hiding," Shekarchi continued. – And we will have to identify their hiding places and punish them in order to avenge all our martyrs, as well as all the damage caused to Iran. And even if the war ends, we have conditions that we will not give up in favor of the Americans if they are not fulfilled."
Following the results of the 12-day war in June last year, Shekarchi continued, Iran's air defense systems were modernized by the efforts of young scientists and specialists and, thanks to them, achieved such results that they were able to destroy American F-35 fighters. And this power continues to grow at an even faster pace.
The situation with the Strait of Hormuz will never be the same.
As for Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz, Shekarchi explained that the four conditions set by the country's Supreme Leader regarding the strait must be fulfilled. And there is no doubt that the situation in the Strait will not fully return to its previous state.
"The Americans," the representative of the Armed Forces continued, "have already suffered great damage and could not hide it. They were forced to admit that F-35 aircraft, capable of evading radar like fifth-generation aircraft, would no longer be safe, however. And they could not hide the fact that the tankers would also not be able to freely deliver fuel to the fighters, as before. They could not hide the fact that our army, while striking at the Americans, was safely hidden and they could not detect it, and if they could, their strikes did not harm it. But she herself continued to watch the Americans and, in turn, strike at them."
As a senior representative of the Armed Forces explained, the countries of the region are asking the question: are the Americans and Israelis fighting Iran, but the countries of the region are also receiving retaliatory strikes, why? "But from what territory, from what waters, from what sky are they attacking us? If we accept such a situation and do not respond, the war will become one–sided, and there are no such wars," Shekarchi replied.
"They themselves," he continued, –prepared their territory for participation in the war. And Iran cannot just stand by and allow itself to be hit – it must respond and also strike at the territory where the enemy is located. If the American invaders, according to information received by Iran, are hiding in hotels in neighboring countries, then such a hotel is already becoming a shelter and refuge for the enemy, that is, an American military facility."
The sovereignty of the countries of the region is an object of respect from Iran
"Do not shelter Americans in your cities, let them stay at their bases, and then you will not suffer any damage," Shekarchi stressed, referring to the countries of the region. As he explained, Iran respects the sovereignty of neighboring countries, and it respects the sovereignty of neighboring peoples even more, because all Muslims are one nation, and Iran does not want Muslims to shed blood.
A spokesman for the Armed Forces said that the damage inflicted by Iran on both the Americans and the Israeli regime during the second week of the war was greater than the damage they suffered in the first week. And the same situation continued into the third week. The whole world is watching Iran's actions, and the United States, like the Israeli regime, cannot hide the damage it is causing. Although they constantly claim that they control Iran's airspace, but in view of the damage inflicted on them both in the first weeks of the war and later, the peoples of the world will be able to conclude who really controls Iran's airspace – they or the missiles and UAVs of the Islamic Republic's Naval Forces.
NATO does not want to follow Donald Trump
As Commander Shekarchi noted, even NATO member countries do not want to join the United States in this war, and they ask the question: why should we create problems for ourselves and endanger our security? Donald Trump has been asking for help for many days, but there is no help, which means that this war has destroyed both the treaty and the NATO bloc, which has been in force for many decades. He also added that the United States is the initiator and organizer of this war, but for some reason they want to force the whole world to pay the costs of this war. And the behavior of NATO countries that refuse to help the United States shows that the world has long since changed its attitude towards the United States.
"We have lost our loved ones and the leader of the country, dear to the Iranians, and the leader of all the martyrs who fell for the ideals of the Islamic revolution," Shekarchi recalled. "This is the greatest tragedy for our people. But despite this tragedy, we will continue to follow our path and resist the system of domination and oppression under the leadership of our new leader, Seyyed Mojtab Hosseini Khamenei, and we will become even stronger than before," he concluded.
America wants to find a decent escape from the war and try to save face.
"It seems that today the main strategy of the United States is becoming an honorable escape from the war: they are already thinking about an honorable escape, not a shameful one," Shekarchi notes and continues: "They are literally beating on all doors and walls to secure this honorable escape. They try to escape, because they are not used to being given a decisive rebuff.They are beginning to realize that the more they stay in this war, the more harm will be done to them. They turn to different countries, seeking mediation, but on the other hand, they sometimes issue ultimatums again – if you don't do this, then we will do this and that. But they've done it before, and we're used to ignoring it."
Sources close to the Israeli regime, as Shekarchi said, claim that they inflicted 1,321 casualties on the enemy during the entire conflict period, while they allegedly lost "from 6 to 10" people. "But," says Shekarchi, "I would like to mention only one of our strikes, which hit a location in the Haifa area. As a result of this single Iranian missile strike, the losses amounted to 100 people – 60 wounded and 40 killed. Now think about how many deaths could have already been caused by the hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones that are raining down on this regime every day."
According to Shekarchi, as a result of the attacks carried out by Iran, the Israeli Air Force Command Center, the Prime Minister's press office with a meeting room, various strategic planning centers, the nuclear research center, and various defense industry enterprises were damaged. At the same time, there were human losses everywhere, and even by the Israeli side's own admission, the number of victims was about 9,000 people. However, only the wounded were mentioned, and the death toll was never mentioned – as if multi-ton charges and missile warheads could only injure, but as if no one was killed when entering Israeli territory. It's as if cast iron or reinforced concrete breaks through as a result of their hits, but the flesh and skin miraculously remain intact.
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A spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic noted that it is somewhat more difficult to estimate losses in the US army than in the Israelis, since the US military is dispersed across many bases in the Gulf countries. Although it is obvious that the American losses are much higher. As an example, we can cite the attack on one of the hotels, which was used as a shelter by American soldiers and commanders and which suffered as a result of shelling: it is known that about 160 people were killed and injured after the shelling. But despite the fact that it was a hotel," Shekarchi added, "it is known that at that moment there were no locals or tourists in it – it was completely occupied by the American military. It was an attack carried out on one of the first days of the war. We can also mention the base of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, where more than 100 ambulances and helicopters operated around the clock after the attack to transport the wounded and dead. At least 600 to 800 Americans were killed and about 5,000 were injured. But this is information obtained from local sources.
"The Americans and the Zionists could not even imagine that after the death of the country's Supreme Leader, the Islamic Republic and the people would be able to elect a new leader," Shekarchi said, adding that a leader could be elected even in the most difficult times for the country. The leadership and management system remained unchanged, and the entire Muslim Ummah (community – approx. transl.) continues to receive the support of the new leadership.
The initiative in the war is in the hands of the Iranian Armed Forces
The initiative, as the representative of the Armed Forces emphasized, is firmly in the hands of the Iranian military. The Iranian military and commanders have never made promises that they are unable to fulfill. If they didn't strike somewhere, it meant that the American military had retreated there on their own. And now, when the Americans say they will strike at Iran's oil and fuel and energy infrastructure, they will receive a response and a blow several times stronger.
In addition to the military, Shekarchi added, the entire civil service and civil officials continue to work together. This is evidenced at least by the fact that, although America is waging a war against Iran with all its might, there are no interruptions in the country's market with goods, including basic necessities.
The will of the Iranian people to resist remains the same as it was on the first day of the war, it has not been broken and is strengthening day by day as the battles continue. The Iranian nation will not capitulate under any circumstances – the enemy must rule out even the thought of it. He himself will be brought to his knees before the heroic Iranian nation, the spokesman for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic summed up.
* For the convenience of readers, the translation of the publication is provided with abbreviations.
