“If they seek to force us into submission, we will fight. We will not back down, nor will we bow our heads. When we are capable of securing our rights, why should we travel down a path that is desired by Israel?” the chief executive said in the third and final part of a televised broadcast aired on Friday, marking the second anniversary of his inauguration.
Pezeshkian rejected the prospect of Iran giving up its military capabilities and defensive power, describing their preservation as a matter that the country would not compromise on.
“Would it be right for us to accept having all our military capabilities and defensive power taken away from us and to bow before them (the adversaries)? We will not do such a thing,” he said.
‘Armed Forces astonished the world’
He also described Iran’s military response during the latest bout of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression as an act of defense and praised the country’s Armed Forces for their performance.
“We were forced to defend ourselves, and, by God, our fighters – our Aerospace Forces, the Army, the IRGC, and all our servicemen – put up a fierce defense and astonished the world,” Pezeshkian said.
‘Israel, US seeking to unite Persian Gulf states against Iran’
The president denounced the Israeli regime and the United States for seeking to bring Persian Gulf countries together against Iran.
“Now, with the war that has unfolded, Israel and the United States are seeking to unite the Persian Gulf countries against us, and we, for our part, are working to prevent that from happening,” he said.
Despite the provocations attempted at by Tel Aviv and Washington, Iran believes in Muslim unity and does not view divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims as a basis for separating Muslims from one another, the senior official stated.
“This is my belief and conviction, and I say it not as a slogan, but because I genuinely believe in it: Muslims are brothers to one another.”
Pezeshkian rejected the idea that Iran seeks territorial expansion or intends to attack neighboring countries, contrasting this official position with the Israeli regime’s territorial ambitions.
“We have no intention of attacking other countries, seizing territory, or expanding our borders. Unlike the Zionists, who are in fact seeking a ‘Greater Israel…’ We are neighbors with the countries of the region, we share borders with them, and we must live alongside one another…”
He further addressed the role of regional countries in the latest foreign aggression targeting Iran, saying US forces had used those states’ respective territories to target the Islamic Republic.
“The question is: From where did they (the aggressors) strike Minab School?” he asked, referring to a school that was targeted in southern Iran in the early stages of the aggression claiming the lives of 168 people. “From those very Muslim and friendly countries.”
“Why should they allow them to come and attack us? We do not want to target those countries; we strike the place from which we are attacked,” Pezeshkian noted, referencing Iran’s retaliatory strikes on American interests in the countries that had let their territories be used as launch pads for aggression against the Islamic Republic.
Press TV