The efficiency and affordability of Iran’s combat drones have reshaped the regional military balance and challenged Western air superiority, a senior adviser to the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Aerospace Force said on Tuesday.
Larijani told a Tehran conference that Western concern over Iran’s nuclear activities was “only a pretext,” adding that calls to restrict Tehran’s regional influence and missile capabilities were aimed at weakening the Islamic Republic.
"(Iran) will not retreat from its path of independence and dignity, even at the cost of full confrontation,” the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said.
A surprise military campaign against Iran in June was capped with US strikes on three key nuclear sites, in attacks US President Donald Trump said "obliterated" the program.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons but Israel and Western countries doubt its intentions. Trump seeks to resume talks halted by the June conflict but Tehran rejects US demands it negotiate over its missiles or support for armed regional allies.
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said last week Tehran had rebuilt its missile power beyond pre-war levels and that it seeks peace through diplomacy, but Iranians must not fear war.
Larijani accused the West of manipulating global systems for domination. Western powers, he said, had long used Iran’s nuclear program and regional influence as excuses to apply pressure.
“It is now entirely clear that the real objective of the United States and the West is to confront the Iranian nation. Just as after the recent war, they are demanding restrictions on Iran’s missile capabilities and regional role – issues that are none of their concern. Would they accept Iran commenting on the range of Europe’s missiles or its nuclear weapons?”
Iran’s foreign policy, he maintained, was never based on hostility toward the West but on safeguarding national interests through balanced trade and cooperation with neighboring countries.
“The basis of Iran’s policy has never been to cut trade with the West," he said, arguing that it was Western “domineering behavior and political interference” that disrupted cooperation and strained relations.
Khamenei’s role in the 12-day war
At the same event – We and the West: In Views and Thoughts of Khamenei – Larijani praised the Supreme Leader for what he described as hands-on management of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel in June.
The 86-year-old theocrat appeared to be in hiding during the conflict as Israeli attacks killed hundreds of military personnel and civilians. Trump mooted assassinating Iran's veteran head of state, calling him the "so-called Supreme Leader."
Larijani said Khamenei maintained direct contact with field commanders, issued key operational orders, and oversaw both military and civilian responses during the conflict.
Khamenei’s “precise and steadfast” leadership, he added, helped reverse the early course of the war, describing the first three days as among the most intense.
Khamenei did not appear at any public gathering or event since the start of the 12-day war with Israel. He skipped the funerals of slain military commanders and nuclear scientists and did not even attend the annual mourning ceremonies in his Tehran compound. Khamenei reemerged after a 22-day absence in early July.
“Almost all underground and under-mountain missile infrastructure remains intact and has no serious problems,” Gholamreza Jalali said, crediting long-running operational measures and engineering choices.
The priority given to aerospace and missile assets, Jalali said, guided 20 years of planning for missile cities and depots built into mountains and deep underground. Only minor repairable damage occurred at some access points, he added.
Underground networks and nuclear sites
Sensitive nuclear centers, Jalali said, were placed in safe spaces after early threat assessments, adding that he personally proposed the protected design concept years ago.
“The shadow of war was present from the very beginning of our activities, and based on the threat scenarios, it was decided that sensitive nuclear sites should be designed in secure underground locations beneath mountains.”
During the 12-day war and the US attacks on nuclear facilities, added Jalali, some foreign reports highlighted the confrontation between “bunker buster bombs” and Iranian concrete engineering. “It was an oversimplified interpretation of designs."
“Regarding the US claim of destroying nuclear facilities, it must be said that further details remain classified and confidential,” he added.
Banks cyber security not addressed yet
Jalali pointed to cyber-attacks on Iranian banks, saying two major banks shared a core platform with unresolved weaknesses. “For banking security, we designed a regional secure model and obtained funding, but execution rests with the relevant bodies,” he said.
During the June conflict, Iran’s Bank Sepah and Bank Pasargad were hit by major cyberattacks that disrupted online banking and ATM services.
Jalali also addressed the use of foreign messaging platforms by military figures, saying none of Iran’s commanders, living or dead, had ever used WhatsApp, while reports suggested some Hamas leaders had relied on it.
Advanced surveillance and data-analysis systems – spanning artificial intelligence, satellites, and signal tracking – are fully controlled by Israel and the United States, he said, adding that using such platforms exposes communications to monitoring and targeting.
“When we are in confrontation with such adversaries, we must assume total visibility across digital space.”
Former communications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in August that Iranian officials with sensitive information on their phones were easy targets for Israeli cyber operations during June's 12-day war, adding that Israel exploited platforms such as WhatsApp to track them.
“In the recent war, those who had information and were of interest to Israel were easy prey for hacking,” Azari Jahromi said, but did not identify those targeted.
Shelters kept confidential
Tehran has multiple shelter options, including metro stations, car parks, and basements, but officials avoided announcing them publicly to prevent panic, he added.
Local authorities received training to guide people in emergencies, while Tehran Municipality was working to upgrade facilities and warning systems for possible use as public shelters, according to him.
Iran had fully expected attacks on its nuclear facilities and launched a plan to prepare, he added.
Limited drills in Kashan and broader exercises at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan helped minimize risks, Jalali said, adding that chemical storage was cleared and activities scaled back before strikes, and post-attack tests confirmed no radioactive contamination.
John Hurley, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Iran has managed to channel about $1 billion to Hezbollah this year despite Western sanctions that have crippled its economy.
“There’s a moment in Lebanon now. If we could get Hezbollah to disarm, the Lebanese people could get their country back,” he told Reuters in an interview published on Sunday.
Hurley said the key to curbing Hezbollah’s power was to “drive out the Iranian influence and control that starts with all the money they are pumping into Hezbollah.”
He spoke in Istanbul as part of a regional tour to Turkey, Lebanon, the UAE and Israel aimed at tightening financial and diplomatic pressure on Tehran.
Pressure campaign on Iran
The remarks come as the US intensifies its so-called maximum pressure campaign on Iran, whose economy is reeling under renewed UN snapback sanctions imposed after talks to limit its nuclear and missile activities collapsed in September.
Western governments accuse Tehran of pursuing nuclear weapons capability, a charge Iran denies, insisting its program is for civilian energy.
Washington last week sanctioned two individuals accused of funneling Iranian funds to Hezbollah through money exchanges, in a bid to sever the group’s financial channels. The Treasury said the network had helped move tens of millions of dollars to rebuild Hezbollah’s military infrastructure in Lebanon.
Founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982, Hezbollah has grown into Lebanon’s most powerful military and political force. It has fought multiple wars with Israel and is a key member of Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” alliance.
The group remains designated as a terrorist organization by the US and several Western states.
An investigation by Le Figaro in October found that Iran’s Quds Force had helped Hezbollah reorganize after the 2024 war with Israel and the assassinations of its longtime leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.
Lebanon’s fragile government has pledged to disarm all non-state groups, including Hezbollah, under a US-backed truce with Israel. But the group continues to wield significant political influence and has resisted full demobilization, arguing that its weapons are essential to defend the country.
US officials say Iran’s financial and military backing remains central to Hezbollah’s survival. “Even with everything Iran has been through, even with the economy not in great shape, they’re still pumping a lot of money to their terrorist proxies,” Hurley said.
Brigadier General Ali Belali, a veteran of Iran’s missile program, said the country’s unmanned aerial systems have become a “strategic game-changer” built upon decades of domestic innovation since the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq war.
Speaking at a ceremony in Tehran, he said Iran’s early artillery units formed during the war “became the foundation for our missile and later our drone capabilities.”
Belali traced the evolution of Iran’s missile and drone programs to the efforts of the late General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, regarded as the architect of Iran’s missile industry.
“He believed everything should be indigenous,” Belali said. “This approach to self-reliance has become the cornerstone of our defense strategy.”
He said Iran’s early efforts began with reverse-engineering Soviet-made systems such as the Scud and Frog-7, before moving to locally produced missiles capable of precision strikes.
“We built what we could not buy,” Belali said, recalling that the first missiles were fired from western Iran with limited range and accuracy. “Today, precision and range speak for themselves.”
“During the war (in the 80s), our first drone carried barely a liter of fuel and flew for 15 minutes. Today, our systems have challenged even America’s air dominance,” he said. “Their production cost and performance have upended every equation.”
Reports by the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times have said Iranian-designed Shahed drones, mass-produced in Russia, have been used in large-scale attacks on Ukraine, overwhelming air defenses with low-cost precision swarms.
Defense analysts say the Shahed’s simple design and low unit cost – estimated at $35,000 to $60,000 each, compared with hundreds of thousands for Western equivalents – have driven global efforts to produce cheaper unmanned systems.
Belali said such technologies have “shifted the balance” not only through deterrence but also by reducing dependency on costly conventional weapons.
“Our progress came from necessity, faith, and engineering under pressure,” he said. “The world has now recognized the impact of that path.”
Western governments have imposed multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian drone manufacturers and procurement networks, accusing Tehran of supplying drones to Russia and regional armed groups.
Iran has denied direct involvement in combat operations abroad, saying its technology serves defensive purposes.
