New Delhi [India], September 12 (ANI): Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday lashed out at the US and Israel over the war that started in February this year and accused them of trying to bully Iran. He said Iran will never surrender and will push back.
Pezeshkian arrived in New Delhi earlier on Friday to attend the 18th BRICS Summit.
The Iranian President, who addressed Indian religious leaders, intellectuals and business leaders on Friday evening, said Iran has been able to "successfully stand against Israel and the United States at the same time".
“They want to bully us, and we do not want to be bullied. We never kneel down before them. If they push us, we push back. They claim that they are advocates of human rights. In truth, they are the devils who are the true terrorists, because they killed 168 schoolchildren in one instant, thanks to their modern technologies. You call us terrorists? What about you, who kill human beings, bomb scientists, and attack schools and hospitals?” he said, according to translation of his speech by a translator.
“If you are man enough, just fight the soldiers, the military people. Why do you target infrastructure and people's livelihoods?... The people of Iran will not surrender. We believe in human values, and we believe that all who live—all humanity—enjoy equal rights,” he added, according to the translator.
Iran and the US traded strikes earlier this week. Iran said it launched retaliatory missile strikes targeting Jordan on Wednesday, hitting the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base used by American forces, following an earlier US military attack on Iranian vessels.
In an official statement reported by the state-backed IRNA news agency, Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced that they "struck the American Al-Azraq base in Jordan with heavy missile strikes" as part of a designated "punitive operation".
Shortly after the barrage, the Jordanian military announced that its air defence network intercepted and neutralised the incoming projectiles.
According to an official army statement, Jordan's defence systems detected 20 incoming ballistic missiles, successfully destroying 18 of them, while two impacted unpopulated terrain.
The escalation followed actions by the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which confirmed that American forces targeted five Iranian tankers connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday, September 8.
The action came in retaliation against repeated missile assaults directed at a US Navy warship over the preceding 48 hours.
CENTCOM specified that US assets struck four crude oil carriers situated in the Gulf of Oman alongside a fifth vessel near Kharg Island inside the Persian Gulf.
In his remarks at the event in the national capital, Representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in India, Abdul Majid Hakeem Ilahi, compared Iran and India to being like two rivers contributing to the “sea of kindness and civilisation”.
“India and Iran are located in two different territories. However, in the geography of culture and history, they are pages of the same book—two rivers that are from the same origin, which have, for centuries, been contributing to the sea of kindness and civilisation...Therefore, when we’re talking about Iran and India, we’re not just talking about two geographies. We are actually talking about two huge branches of the same strong civilization,” he said.
Ambassador of Iran to India, Mohammad Fathali, pointed to the shared history between the two countries.
“What is important for us is that we, as the Islamic Republic of Iran, have a long historical relationship with India, and it is deeply rooted in history. This has provided ground for the development of activities in other areas as well. During the past several months, we have been attacked by the cowardly US and the fascist regime. We have lost great people,” the Ambassador said. (ANI)
“Iran has successfully stood against Israel, US…people of Iran will not surrender”: Iranian President Pezeshkian
