Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that a country like Iran, with 16 neighbors, cannot be easily sanctioned.
“If we effectively manage our relationships with our neighbors, we can successfully overcome external pressures,” Pezeshkian said in a meeting with governors from across Iran on Monday.
He then urged the Interior Minister to consult with heads of border provinces and organize a plan on interaction and cooperation with their counterparts in neighboring countries.
The President emphasized that Iran has no intention to oppress anyone. “But we will never yield to force and bow down in the face of aggressors,” he noted.
Last month, three European powers, the UK, France and Germany, triggered the reimposition of international sanctions on Iran, accusing Tehran of spurning diplomacy and nuclear inspections.
Also, since he resumed office in January, US President Donald Trump reinstated the “maximum pressure” campaign of US sanctions on Tehran.
On Sunday, the US state department told Iran International that Washington remains ready for “serious and direct dialogue” with Tehran, hours after Iranian leaders declined invitations to attend a Gaza peace summit in Egypt chaired by Trump.
“We are ready to talk directly,” a state department spokesperson said. “The United States has kept the door open for serious and direct dialogue, even as Iran has consistently rejected negotiations.”
“Should the Iranians want to negotiate, the ball is in their court,” the spokesperson added, quoting Trump. “They are the ones that stand to benefit from the negotiation.”
Last week at a cabinet meeting in the White House, Trump said Iran told the administration it was in favor of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal and that the US would work with Tehran.
“We'd like to see them be able to rebuild their country too, but they can't have a nuclear weapon,” said Trump.
His comments came while the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on about 100 individuals, entities and vessels, including a Chinese independent refinery and terminal, that helped Iran's oil and petrochemicals trade.
Meanwhile, Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, said “sanctions prevent any country in the world from cooperating with us seriously on armaments.”
The adviser said he wishes he had pursued a nuclear weapon in the late 1990s and, asked if he would do so were he back in that role, he answered: “Yes, I certainly would.”
On the downing of Ukraine International Airlines on January 8, 2020 by Iranian Revolutionary Guards surface-to-air missiles, Shamkhani said: “I knew, and the president knew.”
Shamkhani also discussed the killing of former President Ebrahim Raisi in an Iranian Air Force helicopter crash near the village of Uzi, East Azerbaijan.
When asked whether Raisi’s death was connected to Israel, he said, “In the investigators’ inquiry, no signs of foreign interference were found in the president’s death. However, it cannot be ruled out that something beyond the technical capabilities of the investigation has occurred.”
