Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged to not fold to strain from the United States after his American counterpart, Donald Trump, mentioned he was contemplating restricted strikes to drive a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Pezeshkian’s feedback on Saturday got here amid excessive tensions within the Gulf, with the US continuing to grow its navy presence with the deployment of two plane carriers and dozens of jets.
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“We will not bow down in the face of any of these difficulties,” Pezeshkian mentioned at a ceremony to honour members of the Iranian Paralympics workforce.
“World powers are lining up with cowardice to force us to bow our heads. Just as you did not bow down in the face of difficulties, we will not bow down in the face of these problems,” he mentioned.
Iran and the US resumed oblique talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme in Oman earlier this month, and held a second round in Switzerland final week.
Although Washington and Tehran described the talks in general optimistic phrases, they failed to attain a breakthrough.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned on Friday {that a} diplomatic answer appeared inside “our reach” and that his nation was planning to finalise a draft deal in “the next two to three days” to ship to Washington.
Crossroads
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, mentioned the 2 international locations seem like at a “crossroads once again” and that residents of the Iranian capital had been watching intently for indicators of diplomatic progress.
“How can anyone not worry about war?” one lady instructed Al Jazeera. “Even if we don’t worry about ourselves, we worry about our children’s future.”
A businessman mentioned he believed navy confrontation was finally inevitable “because what the Americans want is surrender, and the Iranian state won’t accept that”.
“If that happens, conditions will become even harder – business is already slow,” he added.
Another man was extra optimistic.
“The US knows it can’t overpower Iran,” he mentioned. “The US hasn’t truly won a war in any country, say Afghanistan, Iraq or Vietnam. In the end, it will bow to Iran. People shouldn’t worry.”
Iran and the US engaged in nuclear talks final yr, too, however the effort collapsed when Israel launched assaults on the nation, triggering a 12-day battle. The US joined in by bombing three Iranian nuclear websites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Trump issued new threats of navy motion in January following a lethal Iranian crackdown on antigovernment protesters. Tehran responded by threatening to strike US navy bases within the area and warning that it may shut the Strait of Hormuz, a significant waterway for oil exports for the Gulf Arab states.
Greatest air energy since 2003
According to the US media, the airpower Washington is amassing within the area is the best since its invasion of Iraq in 2003. In the previous few days, Washington has deployed greater than 120 plane to the Middle East, whereas the world’s largest plane service, the USS Gerald R Ford, is on its technique to be a part of the USS Abraham Lincoln service strike group already positioned within the Arabian Sea.
Iran emphasised in a letter to the United Nations Security Council on Friday that the build-up “must not be treated as mere rhetoric”.
Although Iran isn’t searching for “tension or war and will not initiate a war”, any US aggression will probably be responded to “decisively and proportionately”, the letter added.
The letter got here after Trump claimed on Thursday throughout his inaugural Board of Peace assembly that “bad things will happen” with out a “meaningful deal”.
Clarifying his remarks on Air Force One later that day, Trump mentioned Iran had “10, 15 days, pretty much, maximum”.
On Friday, in response to a reporter’s query on whether or not the US may take restricted navy motion because the international locations negotiate, Trump mentioned, “I guess I can say I am considering that.” Just a few hours later, he instructed reporters that Iran “better negotiate a fair deal”.
Fears of a regional battle have prompted international locations together with Sweden, Serbia, Poland and Australia to advise their residents in Iran to go away the nation.
