According to the IRIB News Agency in East Azerbaijan province, Mehrab Davari said today during the ceremony of ringing the civil defense bell at Taleghani State Model High School in Tabriz: "Defense is a compound word. 'Ped' means defense and 'Afand' means attack, and overall, civil defense means defending against an attack."

He added: "Active defense involves military tools to counter enemy aggression, while civil defense encompasses measures that we take throughout our lives without even being aware of many of them."

He continued: "Any measure against man-made and natural threats includes civil defense; for example, studying in schools and acquiring knowledge protects students against ignorance, and learning science is also considered a type of civil defense."

Davari stated: "We live in a time when the world of global arrogance, led by criminal and child-killing America, is hostile toward the system of the Islamic Republic. The reason for the global arrogance's hostility toward the Islamic Republic is our independence and refusal to submit to arrogance. We have learned science and mastered nuclear energy and the world's best defense and offensive systems, but the enemy does not tolerate this authority and capability."

Referring to the students' duty in safeguarding the system, Davari said: "This duty is heavy and valuable, and if we are negligent in performing it and lose time, we will wake up at a time when it is very difficult to compensate. Today, no intelligence service accompanies Iran, and we have no choice but to engage. If we want to have a defense, we must arm ourselves with knowledge. Today, science, knowledge, and the presence of youth in the field have created valuable deterrence for the country."

The Security and Law Enforcement Deputy of the Governor-General of East Azerbaijan stated: "Today, high costs are paid to ensure the safety and peace of students in schools, and the devoted armed forces sit behind launchers without any expectations to protect the country's soil and ensure the security of the people, sacrificing their lives to defend the country's entity."

Esfandiar Sadeqi, the Director-General of Education of East Azerbaijan, also stated: "Today, the pilot project of the civil defense bell was held at Taleghani High School, and the purpose of holding such meetings is for the students and ourselves to arm ourselves with a set of measures that we can take against various types of accidents."

He added: "Civil defense is not exclusive to wartime; rather, any event that protects us from a hazard, taking those actions, is civil defense. Even a student's studying for a school exam is considered civil defense."

He continued: "Students, parents, and education colleagues face various hazards during war, floods, and earthquakes, and educating on damage reduction measures in such conditions is the responsibility of the education department. School principals must take the necessary measures to prevent various hazards by understanding their working environment."

Sadeqi said: "Civil defense includes personal life, even to the extent of locking the house door, and we must be prepared at any moment to face various hazards."

He emphasized: "An earthquake drill is held annually in schools, which is a type of civil defense for critical situations so that students can practice and take appropriate actions in crisis conditions."

Stating that maintaining calm in all crisis situations is of particular importance, he said: "Before an incident occurs, one must prevent it from happening; for example, preventing the construction of buildings in riverbeds is civil defense."

The Director-General of Education of East Azerbaijan added: "Students are the country's valuable assets and the Iran of the future, and learning safety principles from today is obligatory for everyone."

He continued: "Civil defense is a sign of awareness, order, and responsibility of us all, and in any type of crisis, its conditions change."

Source: IRIB News Agency