IRGC commander, Brigadier General Hossein Salami. Photo: Wikipedia.

The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps declared that it was his country’s military might that brought world powers to the negotiating table over the nuclear issue, the country’s semi-official state news agency Fars reported on Monday.

According to the report, Brigadier General Hossein Salami asserted during an interview with state-run TV on Sunday night, “We are so powerful that we can target all the vital interests of the enemies in the region from either inside or outside Iran with any desired intensity and power.”

In addition, he claimed, “The hidden parts of our military power are always more than the overt parts of our power.”

This, Fars reported, echoed comments made in June by the deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, the gist of which was that the United States and its allies, among them Israel, would be surprised by Iran’s secret military achievements — something they may discover if there is a war.

“The enemies of the Islamic Republic, headed by the Americans, the Zionists and the British, are (only) aware of a part of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s power in different defensive and missile fields and fortunately, since we are self-reliant in this area, our enemies aren’t aware of certain parts and will not be aware any time soon unless something happens,” Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri was quoted as saying. “In such a case, we might need to display a part of our capabilities in the battlefield and I believe that if such a thing happens, they will be much surprised to suddenly see how much progress the Islamic Republic has made in defensive fields.”

These statements are examples of increasingly threatening rhetoric emanating from Tehran since its signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with world powers last year.

As was reported by The Algemeiner last week, a top regime official engaged in saber-rattling over the US military presence in the Persian Gulf, which he called “unwelcome and illegal.”

The escalation in tensions also comes as the US Congress is investigating allegations that the Obama administration transferred billions of dollars in cash to Tehran, some of which was purportedly paid as ransom for the release of American prisoners.

As The Algemeiner reported earlier this month, Mark Dubowitz, the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that “Iran may have received as much as $33.6 billion in cash or in gold and other precious metals” between 2014 and 2016.

In response, Texas Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz tweeted, “Americans deserve an explanation of why the Obama Admin is using their money not to fight terrorism, but to fund it.”