"A senior Army commander declared here on Tuesday that Iran plans to station more ground force units along its borders in reaction to a recent change in the nature of the threats posed to the country.
"Our country has faced a new phase of threats and we should start some changes in ground force (alignment) proportionate to those threats. Accordingly we have defined our doctrine based on past experiences and drawn new guidelines," Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan told reporters on the occasion of the Army Day (April 18).
"In the new alignment, units of the Army ground force will be deployed all around the country's borderlines," Pourdastan stated, adding, "We will witness construction of new bases and garrisons in many border areas of the country in the current Iranian year (started on March 21)."
Meantime, the commander said that his forces are slated to stage two massive military exercises this year.
On Sunday, Pourdastan said that the Army Ground Force plans to implement some structural reforms and prepared the ground for such reforms last year.
Pourdastan stressed that revisions and reforms will boost the Iranian ground forces' mobility and agility. "
This report by FARS is short on details but we can speculate on the new deployments. To the northwest, there is the sporadic conflict with PJAK. To the southeast, there are the terrorist activities of Jundallah. To the east there are the drug gangs infiltrating Iran and causing so much disruption to Iranian society. And there is the traditional invasion route through Khuzestan. How these possible deployments would affect current areas of responsibility for the IRGC and NAJA is open to further speculation. Perhaps the IRGC and NAJA will further intensify their duties with regard to internal security, and perhaps the IRGC will further develop its Mosaic doctrine capabilities. But again, all of this is speculation. However, it is a curious thing for an Army commander to be promising enhanced mobility--as in maneuver warfare--while citing border deployments and presumably static border garrisoning. (Perhaps something was lost in the translation.)
In the weeks prior to WW I this type of activity was known as a part of a "mobilization". It becomes part of the chain reaction of events leading to real hostilities. The momentum becomes unstoppable.
ReplyDeleteI am sure we will soon hear that the Saudis are doing the same.
Anon, your historical analogy involves Russia and Germany in 1914.
ReplyDeleteThere are two analogies from WWII that cam be put forward:
One is the unsuccessful defense of Poland in 1939, where the Polish army was spread out at border points, instead of more adaptable or consolidated positions.
The other is the large scale fortified line the Russians built on their western border, which subsequently attempts were made to move the line farther west for the new border which included eastern Polish and more southern territories acquired during and after 1939.
I have to caution you that Iranian defense reporting can be notoriously inaccurate, even in terms of reliable translations.
If these new bases and deployments come to fruition, we might find them in the future in updated Google Earth imagery. We might even find the construction process.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteDoes positioning the armies right on the border gives them the capability to move across the border to intercept enemy’s armies involved in an imminent attack on national territory? Is this part of the logic of such move?
Would this move be related to events / tactics used by US/EU in Libya?
ReplyDeleteSuppose some group (MEK) where to take some small border village and declare their supposed democratic intent and ask for support from nato/US?