The Iranian foreign ministry once again categorically rejected talks with foreign states to work out a deal on Iran’s defense and missile program.
“We have spoken a lot in Iran about the missile and defense issues. Iran, like all other states and as an independent country, doesn’t allow anyone to interfere in its internal affairs and internal and missile policies,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Saturday.
He referred to the Iraqi-imposed war against Iran in 1980s which was supported by many world powers, and said, “Had we enjoyed the necessary defense capabilities and had certain conditions not ruled us, certainly a mad person like Saddam couldn’t have attacked us and engaged us in a devastating war for 8 years.”
Elsewhere, Qassemi said that Saudi Arabia which has been entangled in the quagmire of Yemen is now after a hypothetical enemy and raises allegations against Iran on supplying the Yemenis with missiles, stressing that the Saudi claims are “a complete lie and irrelevant”.
He expressed confidence that Saudi Arabia would one day leave Yemen after a dishonorable defeat.
In relevant remarks last Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reiterated his country’s firm opposition to any kind of negotiation on its military and missile capabilities, saying Tehran wants talks on the West’s boundless sales of destructive weapons to certain regional states.
“Given the historical experience (of the 8-year Iraqi-imposed war supported by the western states) against Iran’s national security, the Iranian people are sensitive to any related issue and they truly and correctly believe that the country’s defense power is not negotiable,” President Rouhani said in a meeting with Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Sigrid Kaag in Tehran.
“Meantime, we are interested in holding talks with our friends about the extensive sales of destructive weapons to the regional states, mainly by the western states; specially sales of the deadly aircraft and missiles which are used to kill and displace people and destroy the residential areas and infrastructures in Yemen,” he added.
Yemen has been since March 2015 under a brutal aggression by Saudi-led coalition, in a bid to restore power to fugitive former president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis have been injured and martyred in Saudi-led strikes, with the vast majority of them are civilians.
However, the allied forces of the Yemeni Army and popular committees established by Ansarullah revolutionaries have been heroically confronting the aggression with all means, inflicting huge losses upon Saudi-led forces.
The Saudi-led coalition – which also includes UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan and Kuwait – has been also imposing a blockade on the impoverished country’s ports and airports as a part of the aggression.
Source: Fars news agency
