Deputy Commander of #Iran's Army RAdm Sayyari has criticised everyone from the state TV to the IRGC itself for promoting the Guards are expense of the Army. IRNA released 13 mins of its exclusive interview w/ Sayyari before taking it down today.

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Like other armies around the world, he said, Iran's Army "doesn't believe in publicising everything it does" because it would risk exposing "national security capabilities".

"We're not a refrigerator manufacturer," he said, prompting the interviewers to smile. (00:27)

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Perhaps taking a dig at the Guards' submarines, he said: "It's not necessary to tell the youth 'Look at me - Sayyari - look how hard I work; look what I made, look how I go under water!'"

Instead, he said, the Army holds drills to show off its capabilities.

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Sayyari criticised the movie industry for portraying the Army as inferior to the Guards. He says the 2014 movie Che by Hatamikia depicted Valiollah Fallahi - Sayyari's commander during the Iran-Iraq war - as a clumsy man.

"I cried from the beginning to the end."

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He also had harsh criticism for the state TV (IRIB). He said he had written & complained to the broadcaster for a recent programme that downplayed the Army's role in securing Iran's waters but "nobody replied".

"Clearly there's something going on behind the scenes at IRIB."

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