Iran's defensive power is based on the nation's support, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said on Thursday, IRNA reported.
He made the remarks in a conference titled as 'national and all-out defense' in Tehran.
"Any time that the country faces outside attack or occupation, Jihad (holy war) will become mandatory for nation based on Islamic teachings; on the contrary with the materialist movements which put their defensive power based on their war equipment, all-out defense in Islamic teachings is based on nation's defensive power", Firouzabadi said.
General Firouzabadi underlined that arrogant powers' war against Iran is an all-out war which have various aspects, including the cultural, political, and economic.[
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said on last year's April 12 that Iran's high soft power was one of the main factors of the country's influential role on the international scene.
"Today the soft power comprises a major part of the Islamic Republic of Iran's power at the international scene and that is quite spectacular," Vahidi said, addressing a group of Iranian students in the country's Northern city of Babolsar.
He said that now the voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran has echoed in many parts of the world, and added, 'The call for awakening and campaign against the global oppression has echoed even in occupied Palestine today.'
Vahidi further deplored the militaristic approach in the international politics.
In similar remarks in June 2011, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said that the Islamic nature of Iran's establishment has granted the country an upper-hand in soft war against enemies.
'Our soft war power is much more than enemy's since Islam and our beliefs are our backbone, and this backbone is the strongest in the world,' Commander of IRGC's Sahib ul-Amr Corps Salar Abnoush stated at the time.
He further pointed out that a good knowledge and understanding of these two assets enables all Iranian commanders to lead and command their forces efficiently.