Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said his country is engaged in a “full-scale war” with the United States, Israel, and Europe, according to an interview published Saturday on the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“We are in a full-scale war with the US, Israel and Europe; they don’t want our country to remain stable,” Pezeshkian said, AP reported.
He said the West’s campaign against Iran is “more complicated and difficult” than the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq war, which caused over a million deaths on both sides.
“If one understands it properly, this war is far more complex and more difficult than that war,” he added. “In the war with Iraq, the situation was clear; they fired missiles, and it was clear where we would strike back. But here, they are now besieging us in every respect, putting us under pressure and in tight corners, creating problems—economically, culturally, politically, and in terms of security.”
Pezeshkian’s remarks came ahead of a planned meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump during Netanyahu’s visit to the United States.
Also Read: Trump says Netanyahu pardon ‘on its way’; Herzog’s office disputes it
Trump warns Iran on nuclear program
On Monday, Trump warned Iran against attempting to rebuild its nuclear program as he welcomed Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
The warning followed Trump’s repeated assertion that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been “completely and fully obliterated” by US strikes on key enrichment facilities in June.
However, Israeli officials have told local media they remain concerned that Iran may be rebuilding its stockpile of long-range missiles capable of striking Israel.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again,” Trump told reporters. “And if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”
Also Read: ‘We made a lot of progress’: President Trump as he holds talks with Israeli PM Netanyahu
Israeli and US strikes on Iran during a 12-day air war in June killed nearly 1,100 people in Iran, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, according to the Associated Press. Iranian retaliatory missile attacks killed 28 people in Israel, the report said.