Iran's regular Army on Tuesday claimed that "envious and hostile enemies" misrepresented the remarks of its Coordinating Deputy in an interview to damage the unity of the Army and the Revolutionary Guard.
The statement released by the Army on June 2 claimed that the official government news agency IRNA on May 31 had published only 13 minutes of the 90-minute long video of Real Admiral Habibollah Sayyari's interview but the "enemies used it selectively and interpreted and analyzed it in a hypocritical and antagonistic manner".
The video of the interview titled "Untold Stories of the Army by Rear Admiral Sayyari" was removed from IRNA's website a few hours after its publication.
Referring to the reporting of foreign-based Persian language media, the Army statement also condemned "the hypocritical and begrudging act of hostile anti-revolutionary media" and declared that "the unity and harmony of the Iranian armed forces, particularly the Army and the Revolutionary Guard, is fundamental and unbreakable".
In the controversial interview, Rear Admiral Sayyari bitterly expressed his dissatisfaction with the was the army is ignored by the state-run media while implicitly lambasting the powerful Revolutionary Guard for meddling in the country's political and economic affairs.
The Revolutionary Guard has not directly reacted to the allegations made by Sayyari or commented on the issue. However, a report by Defa Press on Tuesday which included a Revolutionary Guard statement on the occasion of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death anniversary, alluded to the recent controversy.
Defa (Defense) Press is a government-funded news agency dedicated to the news and propaganda related to the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic.
Interpreting the Guard's statement in which the Army was not mentioned whatsoever, Defa Press claimed that it recommended "vigilance against the efforts of the enemy to create discord between the Army and the Revolutionary Guard".
