A senior commander denied on Monday Arab media reports claiming that Israel’s new F-35 stealth fighters had flown over Iran. “In the past few days, certain media outlets of enemies prated about flights over the country which is not even worth a response,” Commander of Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base Brigadier General Farzad Esmaeili said, Fars News Agency reported. “I say here that if a country makes any stupid move and its aircraft approach [Iran], those at the forefront, which is the air defense units, will give it a crushing response,” he added. His remarks came after the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida claimed that two Israeli F-35 fighter jets entered Iranian airspace over the past month. Sources quoted in Al-Jarida claimed that two stealth fighters flew over Syrian and Iraqi airspace to reach Iran, and even targeted locations in the Iranian cities Bandar Abbas, Esfahan and Shiraz. Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base is part of Army and is tasked with controlling land-based air defense.
