Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh shrugged off the US delivery of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile defense system to Israel as part of the “enemy’s psychological warfare.” He made the remarks on Wednesday in an address to reporters on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet meeting in Tehran, reports Xinhua, quoting the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
“The THAAD is an anti-ballistic missile system. It is not a new thing and has existed before. We assess such actions as being in line with the enemy’s psychological warfare. There is no particular problem in that regard,” he said. The United States announced on Sunday that it would send its THAAD system to Israel with soldiers to operate it.
The decision comes as Israel has, over the past few days, threatened to take military action against Iran in response to Tehran’s missile strikes on Israel earlier this month. On October 1, Iran fired approximately 180 missiles at Israeli targets.
Tehran described the strikes as retaliation for the assassinations of several leaders of the regional resistance groups and Israel’s military actions against Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Iran had made a “grave mistake” and vowed retaliation.