What Was the Special Message of the Sahand 2025 Exercise?
WANA (Dec 06) – The joint counterterrorism exercise “Sahand 2025,” held in Shabestar in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, was far more than a routine multinational military drill.
The participation of operational units from ten member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — Russia, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus — alongside observers from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Azerbaijan, and Iraq turned the event into an unprecedented regional security gathering.
Notably, it was the first SCO exercise conducted under Iranian field command, and it carried messages that extended well beyond the framework of counterterrorism training.
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Amir Brigadier General Ahadi, head of International Relations and Defense Diplomacy at Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, explained the nature of the drill: “Sahand 2025 has a security-oriented character, while the next exercise will be military in nature.”
This seemingly simple distinction is itself revealing. Iran appears to be outlining a step-by-step strategy: beginning with security coordination and moving toward deeper and more tangible forms of military cooperation. The stated goal is to go beyond symbolic exercises and establish a joint operational architecture.
At a deeper level, Sahand 2025 represented an effort to “export experience.” Iranian regional security analyst Morteza Simiari described it as: “The transfer of Tehran’s security doctrine, shaped during the 12-day war, to the Shanghai Cooperation framework.”
Sahand 2025 Exercise. Social media / WANA News Agency
The so-called “Tehran security doctrine” emphasizes proactive threat management before dangers escalate into crises. Rather than relying on purely reactive responses, it is built on intelligence preemption, targeted strikes, and rapid clearance operations.
Simiari warns: “Western NATO’s strategy is to allow terrorism to spread in a wide and open environment, rather than contain it within a controlled ecosystem.”
From Tehran’s perspective, terrorism is no longer a localized phenomenon; it is viewed as a manufactured tool for destabilizing states that do not align with Western interests—from the Middle East to Central Asia. Sahand 2025 thus constituted a collective response to this evolving threat model.
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WANA (Dec 02) – The joint counterterrorism exercise Sahand 2025 opened with the participation of high-level military delegations from member and observer states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The exercise began as its commander, Brigadier General Vali Madani, described the IRGC as the “security architect of counterterrorism in the region”, a characterization that reflects […]
The exercise’s message was not directed solely at governments. It was also aimed squarely at militant groups operating across the region.
According to Simiari: “The IRGC’s message to peripheral armed groups and NATO-manufactured elements is the implementation of the ‘Koye Sanjaq model’ and total clearance operations.”
This was a reference to the 2018 IRGC strike in Koye Sanjaq, Iraq, where a precise missile attack on headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party targeted the group’s operational leadership and effectively disrupted its command network.
Sahand 2025 Exercise. Social media / WANA News Agency
The Koye Sanjaq model represents a pattern of preemptive, focused, limited-scale yet high-impact action. Sahand 2025 signaled that this approach is no longer merely an indigenous doctrine but has the potential to become a collective counterterrorism template within the SCO security sphere.
At the heart of shared concerns is one name mentioned more than any other: ISIS–Khorasan Province (ISIS-K). Simiari noted: “ISIS-K and the ‘Al-Siddiq Office’ represent common threats to SCO members, and confronting them requires collective cooperation.”
This branch of ISIS poses not only a threat to Iran but also to Russia, China, Pakistan, and Central Asian states. The scope of its recent operations illustrates how terrorism is breaking through conventional geographical limits and evolving into a borderless project.
Sahand 2025 Exercise. Social media / WANA News Agency
Within this context, Tehran is seeking to elevate its role from that of a local counterterrorism actor to the leader of an emerging regional security bloc.
The timing of Sahand 2025—coming shortly after the 12-day war and intensified political and security pressure on Iran—was anything but coincidental.
Iranian military officials have reflected this reality, stating: “Hosting this exercise after a period of enemy aggression against Iran demonstrates that the Armed Forces have reached the highest level of readiness and possess the capability for active international engagement.”
Sahand 2025 Exercise. Social media / WANA News Agency
In essence, Sahand 2025 delivered a key message: Iran has not retreated under pressure; instead, it has reached a point where it seeks to seize field initiative on a regional scale. The full participation of all SCO members reinforced the idea that Eastern security cooperation is no longer merely rhetorical—it is becoming operationally real.
For Tehran, however, the exercise was not solely about power projection. Its deeper objective was a redefinition of Iran’s position within the Asian–Eurasian security order. Iran aims to present itself not as a crisis-stricken actor, but as a provider of stability against Western-backed destabilization projects.
Sahand 2025 can thus be seen as the first serious demonstration of this evolving role—signaling that Iran is no longer simply defending its borders, but embarking on a path toward becoming the pivot of a transregional counterterrorism security partnership.
