Tehran: Iran, on Sunday, warned that it would retaliate with full force if there was any escalation in the situation in the Middle East.
The country’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf signalled a dual-track approach to the ongoing tensions with the US, asserting that Tehran is open to diplomacy even as it remains on high military alert.
Iran had prevailed on the battlefield and was now prepared to pursue negotiations from a position of strength, Ghalibaf claimed in a televised address.
Iran would respond decisively to any provocation, he said, signalling a hardline stance even as ceasefire efforts remain fragile.
“We are fully prepared — if they make the slightest mistake, we will respond with full force,” Ghalibaf said.
“We are definitely a head and shoulders above the past in offensive capabilities and design in the third imposed war, and we saw this on the battlefield,” he added.
The Iranian leader acknowledged that the US holds an advantage in terms of resources and experience but argued that his country’s planning has allowed it to effectively counter its adversaries.
“We are not militarily stronger than America. It is clear that they have more money, equipment, and resources, and because they have carried out so many aggressions around the world, they also have more experience than us,” Ghalibaf said, as reported by India Today.
Describing the conflict as an asymmetric war, he said that Iran relied on its own planning and preparedness to counter opponents with greater resources.
“We fought in an asymmetric war in such a way that, with our own design and preparedness, we pushed the enemy back. The enemy had money and resources, but did not act correctly in design,” he said.
Ghalibaf also pointed to what he called strategic miscalculations by Iran’s adversaries. “They make mistakes in strategic decisions. They are wrong about our people, just as they are wrong in their military design,” he said.
Accusing Israel of being “America’s servant and agent in the region,” he accused Washington of relying on Israeli inputs despite its stated policy priorities.
“The US government claims that ‘America First’ is important to it, but in practice, it has shown that Israel is first for it, because it makes decisions based on false information from Israel,” Ghalibaf said.
He also claimed that Iran’s adversaries had sought to weaken the country economically but failed in their objectives.
“The enemy sought regime change and to ‘Venezuelanise’ Iran in order to auction off our oil, but it failed,” he said.
