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The commander of the Iranian army's ground forces says the Islamic Republic will not tolerate any change in the official borders close to the Iranian territory.

Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari’s remarks in an interview with the official news agency IRNA, came as a major Iranian military exercise started along Iran's borders with the Republic of Azerbaijan on Friday and videos and photos posted on social media show massive deployment of Iranian forces and military equipment to the region, Iran International reported.

Heidari said: "There are unwanted elements in our region who wish to destabilize the region and undermine its security." He added: "We have been more sensitive about developments at our borders since Israeli elements have arrived in our region. We are monitoring their activity."

Last year when the war over Nagorno Karabakh took place between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Iranian officials and military commanders said that there were Israeli elements in the region and that Azerbaijan and Turkey had positioned Syrian jihadist militia in an area close to Iranian borders.

The Iranian commander reiterated, "We have still not been convinced that the terrorists who have come to the region from Syria have left this region," while also insisting that "Iran is sensitive to changes to official borders in its vicinity and cannot accept them."

In a clear reference to Armenia, which was defeated in the 2020 war, Heidari said, "A possible weakness in one country to protect its borders gives no reason to other countries to change the borders. The Islamic Republic will not allow that.” There have been recent signs of Azerbaijan flexing its muscle in the narrow strip of Armenia’s southern province that connects Iran with Armenia, Georgia and beyond to the north.

General Heidari further said that the Iranian military exercise "aims to assess and promote the combat readiness of Iranian forces as there are several other military exercises going on in our neighborhood." He added: "There have been four or five exercises north of our borders during the past month and currently Turkey is also carrying out another military drill near our northern borders."

Heidari, however, insisted that Iran has never attacked any country during the past two centuries, and that Iran has stressed on Azerbaijan's territorial integrity while Karabakh was "under Armenian occupation".

He insisted that transit journeys in the region should remain safe and secure and the transit routes for trade and energy transfer should be respected by regional countries. He was obviously alluding to the obstruction to Iranian trackers transit journey by Azerbaijan during the past months.