Foes Conducting Military Surveillance Over Southern Waters

A deputy defense minister said enemies are conducting reconnaissance flights over the country's southern waters to probe into Iran's military activities and defense capabilities. "By sending reconnaissance aircraft to the region, particularly over the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, the enemies seek to monitor the activities of the armed forces to detect and analyze the Islamic Republic's defense power,” Lieutenant General Amir Hatami said on Tuesday, Tasnim News Agency reported. Stressing the need for increasing vigilance in the face of enemies, the defense official warned that a major part of hostile plans against Iran is based on reconnaissance. Hatami stressed that military confrontation is not the principal strategy of Iran's armed forces, but underlined that any attack against the country will receive "a crushing response".