Iranian commander breaks silence on wartime arms imports

Sally

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Mar 22, 2012
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It goes to show you that weapons can be bought from entities all around the world.

Iranian commander breaks silence on wartime arms imports
TEHRAN, Iran — Prominent Iranian Brig. Gen. Mohsen Rafiqdoost went into unprecedented detail in a Sept. 26 interview about his time as minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, the IRGC had its own ministry within the administration that took care of its logistical affairs. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense was responsible for the logistics of the army.

Summary⎙ Print A prominent Iranian military figure who served as minister of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the Iran-Iraq War has broken the long tradition of silence surrounding Iran's arms imports during its war with Iraq.
Author Abbas QaidaariPosted October 7, 2016
In an interview with the Reformist Shargh Daily, Rafiqdoost said, “Although at the beginning of the revolution and during the early days of the war, the East and the West were coordinated [against Iran], we still built the defense capabilities of the IRGC with ‘Eastern weapons.’ My first time buying weapons, I bought 2,000 Kalashnikovs and 500 RPG-7s. Later, I would get weapons from Syria and Libya and eventually I connected with North Korea.”

Rafiqdoost spoke about the deep collaboration between Iran and the Eastern Bloc countries during the Iran-Iraq War, explaining, “After North Korea, I also connected with Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and the Eastern bloc, in that order. … Of course, we would buy ammunition for Western-manufactured cannons from Switzerland. … We needed surface-to-air missiles, which were more tactical, and therefore we went and negotiated and brought them to Tehran. In exchange, we gave them a Hague system. That is all. The goods we received from Libya, for free, were worth more than $800 million.”



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