Speaking to Mehr correspondent in a recent interview, the head of the Strategic Studies and Research Center of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said that"The type of operation that the Zionist regime carried out on the first day of the 12-day war was a kind of lightning operation that usually shocks and confuses the target country. It is natural that our armed forces would be initially taken by surprise by such a heavy attack. But the most important point in this situation is the duration of the shock and confusion."

The senior army commander added that "But in the 12-day imposed war, our armed forces,.. recovered in less than half a day."

He added that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution who commands all armed forces played a key role in reviving and regrouping the armed forces by swiftly replacing the martyred commanders.

"Should filling in for the martyred commanders' positions have taken more time, the return to the offensive would have been more difficult," General Pourdastan said.

"In the Zionist regime's aggression, there was the necessary preparation to counter, but what the enemy had brought into the battlefield was far greater than our usual estimates," he asserted.

"The 12-Day War was a fruitful experience," the senior commander said.

"The capacity that the Zionist regime, with the help of America, brought to the battlefield in the 12-Day War was the result of more than forty years of overt and covert investment to overthrow the Islamic regime," he underscored.

Pourdastan continued to note that the enemy sought to partition Iran by the war, while the opposite was resulted.

The senior army commander further asserted that the Iranian armed forces' capabilities forced the enemy to surrender after 12 days.

MNA/6648332