Tehran: Battered and bombed by the US and Israel for four weeks on the trot, Iran just refuses to surrender.
Retaliatory strikes on US bases in the Gulf region, closing the Hormuz Strait for the ‘enemy’, turning down Donald Trump’s peace plan and laying out its own terms – is how Iran has tried to defy the aggressors even as it has suffered much more.
The media has also been backing Iran’s brave resistance.
On Saturday, Iran’s English-language daily Tehran Times delivered a chilling warning to the US with its front-page headline ‘Welcome To Hell’.
“US troops who step foot on Iranian soil will leave only
in a coffin”, the paper wrote beneath the headline.
It was in response to US media reports on Friday that the Trump administration is considering deploying up to 10,000 additional troops to the Middle East.
There has been speculation that America is mulling a ground operation inside Iran, despite saying repeatedly in recent days that Tehran has been engaging in peace talks with Washington aimed at ending the war.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the extra troops are intended to give Trump a wider range of military options in the Middle East, where Gulf nations have been caught in the crossfire between US-Israel and Iran.
If and when the reinforcements do come in, they will join thousands of paratroopers and Marines who are already in the region.
An Iranian official said recently that Tehran will respond to any American ground invasion by activating its Houthi allies in Yemen. In such a scenario, the Houthis will be instructed to resume attacks on ships in the Red Sea, thereby opening a ‘new front’ in the war.