“President [Donald] Trump has said that his administration has come to create peace, but the path that they have embarked upon will set fire to the entire region,” Masoud Pezeshkian told NBC News in an extended interview on Friday.
Under Trump’s former and current administrations, the US has either retained or expanded its military interventionism across the region, including through full-scale and sporadic direct escalations against the regional nations, such as Iran and Yemen.
Pezeshkian’s remarks additionally addressed Washington’s unprecedented military and intelligence support for the Israeli regime, its most important regional ally. Using the support, which has been cranked up to the tune of billions of dollars under Trump, Tel Aviv has intensified implementation of its expansionist schemes and deadly aggression against the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran, and most recently Qatar.
The Iranian president cited the Islamic Republic’s retaliation against the regime’s and Washington’s unprovoked and illegal war on Iran in June, asserting, “Whomever attacks us, we will do our utmost to give them the strongest answer.”
‘Not afraid’
Despite not seeking war and having neither started nor intended one, the Islamic Republic is “not afraid” of war either, he added.
“We will certainly augment our capabilities on a daily basis so as to prevent anyone from attacking us.”
The 12-day war that lasted from June 13 to 25 saw Iran’s Armed Forces launch determined defensive maneuvers and retaliatory strikes using hundreds of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic variants, and drones.
The reprisal targeted strategic Israeli military, nuclear, and industrial sites as well as al-Udeid, the US’s most important regional airbase, which is located in Qatar.
“We are not afraid of death and martyrdom,” Pezeshkian stressed.
The president also addressed the US’s allegations about Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program, including Washington’s so-called satellite imagery.
“To put something out based on purported satellite photography, it’s not pertinent in order to create frameworks that are not based in reality,” he said.
The chief executive rather advised actual inspection of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear installations as a means of verifying the alleged claims.
His remarks, though, came before the US and its allies vetoed delaying so-called “snapback” of the UN Security Council’s sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Tehran recently reached a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency to help resume cooperation with the agency, which was cut off after the Israeli and American attacks rendered it impossible for the watchdog to continue its inspections as before.
The country had warned repeatedly before the vetoes that a vote enabling re-imposition of the sanctions would lead to termination of the deal.
