Iran does not recognise borders when tracking down opponents, the deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said on Monday. “You have witnessed how our borders have expanded beyond the Iranian border to reach the Red Sea and the east of the Mediterranean,” Hossein Salami told a crowd made up of paramilitaries. “All this was possible thanks to the blood of our martyrs.”

According to a report in Iranian news agency Tasnim, Salami said that the “Defenders of the Haram” will destroy Iran’s enemies “wherever they may be in the world.” The Iranian authorities have used the term “Defenders of the Haram” to refer to their military forces in Syria in support of Bashar Al-Assad. Iran now uses it to refer to all paramilitary auxiliary forces of the Revolutionary Guard Corps at home and abroad.

Speaking in a city in western Iran, Salami added that Iranian forces have proved over the years that they “know no red lines when it comes to punishing opponents of the Iranian regime.” He mentioned assassination operations carried out by Tehran against its opponents in the West.