After US President Donald Trump interpreted Iran’s apology to its neighbours over the widening of the conflict as a mark of “defeat”, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s office reasserted a caveat on Saturday: “If countries in the region do not cooperate in the US attack on Iran, we will not attack them.”
Many countries in West Asia/Middle East, including the UAE and Qatar, have US military bases that Iran has been targeting, leading to damage within cities too.
Track: Live news from UAE amid US-Iran conflict
The deputy head of Pezeshkian’s office said the President’s message was “clear”.
“Iran will never submit to coercion. Our powerful armed forces will give a decisive response to any aggression from US bases in the region,” the official said, as per news agency Reuters and Qatar-based channel Al Jazeera.
What Trump said
Trump had claimed hours earlier that Iran had “lost” and “surrendered to Middle East neighbours”. Those remarks come just after Iran’s President Pezeshkian hinted at de-escalation on Saturday and apologised to neighbouring countries in West Asia (or Middle East) for attacks.
Pezeshkian had added that the country’s armed forces have been instructed “not to attack or launch missiles at neighbouring countries unless attacked from there”. He called these countries “brothers” and said, “We have no intention of attacking neighboring countries.”
Following this, Trump in a post on Truth Social said Iran’s promise was only made possible due to “relentless strikes” by the United States and Israel.
“Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack,” Trump wrote.
He claimed that Iran was “looking to take over and rule the Middle East” and that “it is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years”.
Issuing a renewed threat, Trump warned that Iran will be “hit very hard” on Saturday, March 7, and said that areas which were not a targets until now will be attacked because of Iran’s “bad behaviour”.
Strikes continue in region
Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian’s apology to neighbouring countries came earlier in the day even though missiles and drones continued to fly toward the Gulf and Arab states, reported news agency Associated Press.
Pezeshkian’s remarks came exactly a week after the United States and Israel struck Iran on February 28, starting the war and killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rattling the entire world.
However, even after Pezeshkian’s announcement, several cities in the Gulf including Dubai and Abu Dhabi continued to hear explosions and air raid sirens. On Saturday, the Dubai International Airport also suspended its operations briefly after what was officially reported as a “minor incident”.