ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is ready for any scenario, the commander of the force said on Thursday amid heightened regional tensions.

“The enemy sometimes makes military threats, but we have always said, and we are saying now, that we are ready for any scenario, any situation, and any condition,” IRGC-affiliated media reported commander-in-chief of the force Hossein Salami as saying.

“We warn them not to make mistakes and to think carefully about the consequences of their actions. We are ready. This is a reality we have been living with for years. Preparing for war on any scale is our duty and our job,” the commander added.

Salami’s statement comes as reports of a possible Israeli strike on Iran made the news overnight, as well as the US State Department on Wednesday advising US nationals not to visit Iraq, maintaining a code red travel warning for the country amid heightened tensions in the region and Washington’s “limited ability to provide emergency services” to citizens in the country.

The US State Department earlier on Wednesday told The New Region that it had opted to reduce its mission in Iraq in the interest of the safety of its personnel based on its latest analysis of the regional situation.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday told reporters that American personnel are being moved out of the Middle East “because it could be a dangerous place,” reiterating that Washington will “not allow” Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh on Wednesday threatened that the US “will be forced to leave the region” if it decides to pursue any “aggression” against Tehran in the event of a breakdown in the nuclear talks.

“If the negotiations do not reach a conclusion and a conflict is imposed on us, the casualties of the other side will certainly be far greater than ours, and in that case, America will be forced to leave the region because all of its bases are within our reach and we have access to them, and we will target them all in the host countries without consideration,” said Nasirzadeh.

The increase in tension comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday passed a resolution condemning Iranian non-compliance with nuclear safeguards, with 19 out of 35 countries voting in favor of the joint British, French, and German proposal, raising Iranian fears about United Nations (UN) sanctions on the country.

Iran’s Permanent Representative to the UN on Wednesday drafted a letter to the UN Security Council threatening to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) should UN sanctions be reimposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.

The UN previously imposed sanctions on Iran before the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement in 2015, with the landmark agreement seeing Iran receive sanctions relief in exchange for caps on its nuclear program. In addition to the US, the E3 countries played a salient role in the accord.

However, the US withdrawal from the JCPOA during President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018 and his subsequent campaign of “maximum pressure” on Tehran to force its foe to abandon its nuclear program has led to a lengthy standoff.

US and Iranian authorities are set to meet for a sixth round of nuclear negotiations in the Omani capital of Muscat on Sunday, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi said on Thursday.