Iranian officials reiterate their determination to preserve defense capabilities

Tabnak – As the US President Donald Trump is being prepared to announce its decision on the Iran Nuclear Deal, the western countries is increasing pressures on Iran to contain its regional and defense activities. Iranian officials are warning about these attempts, underlining the right to pursue independent path.

In this vein, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei says the US is seeking a way to evade the costs of standing against Iran and place them on regional countries. He also reminds certain regional countries that if they confront Iran, “they will definitely suffer blows and defeat.”

Elsewhere in his remarks on Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei said the enemies have resorted to economic war after realizing the futility of military action against Iran.

“They have now focused on economic and cultural war, with the US Treasury Department working as the headquarters of the economic war on the Islamic Republic Establishment,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.

According to the leader, the era of hit and run is now over, and the US knows that if it gets entangled in military action against Iran, it will receive much harsher blows.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Hossein Salami described Iran’s advanced missiles as “defense assets” and said the country would not accede to abandoning its missile program.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony held in Tehran on Monday to celebrate the Persian Gulf National Day, Brigadier General Salami dismissed some countries’ claims against Iran’s missile program and said all of the Islamic Republic’s activities are within the framework of the international law.

“Missiles are our defensive assets and the main elements of our deterrent power and we can never accept to disarm ourselves…,” the commander stressed.

Iran's Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani has also recently asserted that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the issues relating to Iran’s defense capabilities will be never up for negotiations.

“The Islamic Republic will not hold any new talks on the JCPOA, and believes that the basic issues, such as the defense capabilities, including the missile technology that is necessary for defending the country, are not negotiable at all,” Ayatollah Amoli Larijani said in a meeting of senior Judiciary officials, held in Tehran on Monday.

He also took a swipe at the US government for supplying Saudi Arabia with arms that are used for war crimes in Yemen and for upsetting regional security, saying the US administration, led by a “delusional, unstable and vicious” president like Donald Trump, is in no position to talk about Iran’s defense power.

It should be noted that while Trump has on various occasions called for renegotiating the JCPOA or terminating it, Iran and most other parties say the nuclear agreement is a valid multilateral international document that would not be renegotiated.