Hossein Mahbî, the spokesman of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said: “Our defensive doctrine used to be defensive, and we said that if a country attacked us, we would give it an answer; now we say that if a country attacks us, we will both respond to it and launch an attack.”

Mahbî also emphasized that the military doctrine of the Islamic Republic will no longer be solely offensive and will move toward asymmetric warfare.

He added: “We attack the enemy in such a way that it will realize the severity of our actions.”

The IRGC spokesman also said that the purpose of this change in approach is to create “permanent and absolute deterrence” against military threats.