'Blast set back manufacture of IRGC new product just two weeks'

TEHRAN, Nov. 17(MNA) – The recent blasts that occurred at an Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’ munitions depot set back the research being carried out by the IRGC for only two weeks, according to the chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. Seventeen IRGC personnel were killed by two huge explosions that occurred on Saturday at the munitions depot near the town of Malard, about 30 kilometers west of Tehran. “The incident set back the manufacture of the IRGC’s researched product, which could be a punch in the mouth of the global arrogance (forces of imperialism) and the occupying (Zionist) regime, for only two weeks,” Major General Hassan Firouzabadi stated on the sidelines of a ceremony held in Tehran on Wednesday to commemorate the IRGC personnel who were martyred in the blasts. Elsewhere in his remarks, he dismissed the news reports claiming that either Israel or the United States were behind the blasts. “The blast had nothing to do with Israel or the U.S.,” Firouzabadi stated. Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday also dismissed such news reports as a ‘fabricated story’.