IRGC Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi released a message on Sunday to mark the 44th anniversary of the liberation of the strategic port city of Khorramshahr from Iraqi forces under the former dictator Saddam Hussein and to commemorate the National Day of Resistance, Sacrifice, and Victory.

Referring to the recent US-Israeli war of aggression as the “third imposed war,” Vahidi said the Iranian nation has once again emerged victorious following the “terrorist attack of the Zionist-American enemy,” which resulted in the martyrdom of late Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, several military commanders, and schoolchildren in Minab.

He said the enemy, after facing 40 days of “crushing resistance” and a “decisive and devastating response” by Iran’s Armed Forces, was ultimately forced to seek a ceasefire “in humiliation” and is now witnessing the Iranian nation’s determination to avenge the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

The IRGC commander said the latest conflict was a “hybrid war,” but stressed that the decisive response of Iran’s Armed Forces, backed by popular support, thwarted the enemy’s objectives and neutralized its “satanic plots.”

Vahidi said the lesson of Khorramshahr is reliance on domestic power and active deterrence, adding that Iran’s advances in nuclear, missile, defensive, and offensive capabilities have forced enemies to revise their calculations.

The commander described the determined presence of the Iranian people as the country’s greatest strategic asset and an unbreakable barrier against enemy conspiracies and infiltration.

He further said Iran’s Armed Forces are currently at the highest level of readiness and active deterrence across missile, air, naval, ground, space, and cyber domains.

“Any renewed aggression by the enemy will be met with a devastating and hellish response on regional and trans-regional scales,” he warned.

Vahidi also described the liberation of Khorramshahr as a lasting model for future victories, the liberation of al-Quds, and the destruction of the “criminal Zionist regime” by the axis of resistance and Muslim fighters worldwide.