“We will never abandon our peaceful nuclear program, and no matter what they do, we will not give in,” Pezeshkian said at the sixth edition of the Tehran Dialogue Forum in the Iranian capital on Sunday.
He was responding to Trump’s recent assertion that the United States must ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons while threatening to launch attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
“As a human being, I will not accept coercion. No matter how much they pressure us—I reject force,” the Iranian president said.
He noted that Iran is not afraid of anything, including sanctions. “They want to sanction us? We’ve been under sanctions for a lifetime,” he said mockingly.
‘Iran not seeking nukes’
The president emphasized that as a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the right to use peaceful nuclear technology and conduct nuclear research for various purposes, including health, agriculture, industry, and other vital sectors.
He said Iran’s religious beliefs do not permit the production of nuclear weapons—arms that can “destroy humanity and have nothing to offer the future of the Earth but savagery.”
“The continued claims by others that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons are nothing but a repetition of baseless and warmongering allegations,” he stated.
Pezeshkian also responded to Trump’s branding of Iran as a regional threat during his recent trip to West Asia.
“Are we the ones bombing homes and killing scientists, scholars, and innocent people? Are we threatening the world with weapons, or are they, who have come to our region with threats?” he asked.
“Did we assassinate Ismail Haniyeh in Iran? Do we support such killings? It is the criminals who accuse others of destabilizing the world. This is the death of ethics in politics—and it is their doing.”
He also suggested that Iran could paralyze Western countries by cutting off the supply of energy from the Persian Gulf to them.
Foreign powers, according to the president, are deliberately sowing discord among regional states to justify their interference and looting.
“We’ve lived alongside our neighbors for thousands of years, but they try to divide us. They send weapons so that we fight among ourselves, and then come to the region under the pretext of peace to plunder our resources,” Pezeshkian said.
He emphasized Iran’s efforts to promote regional harmony. “Why should we fight one another? We want to help each other build a region filled with peace and tranquility. Let’s join hands and enjoy life in this region—though the enemy doesn’t want that to happen.”
Press TV