The foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, discussed America’s recent sanctions on Iran known as CAATSA and Iran’s strategies for countering them and said “US aggressive policies against Iran is nothing new, and has specifically intensified since the Islamic Revolution, however such a policy was being followed even before Iran’s Islamic Revolution.”
“Taking into account Iran’s special and strategic situation in the region, the US aggression and avarice toward Iran has always been the same, and in recent years Iran’s role in opposing terrorism and maintaining its territorial integrity has resulted in foreign dissatisfaction with it,” he added.
The foreign ministry spokesman noted that Americans cannot disregard JCPOA and nullify it, and added that “as an international concern approved by Resolution 2231, JCPOA is backed up by the United Nations.”
Ghasemi asserted “having realized that they cannot do anything against JCPOA, the Americans resorted to other means against Iran. But US policies with respect to JCPOA, especially during Trump’s presidency, widened the gap between the United States and other nations.”
Mentioning the missile issue, terrorism and the human rights as some of the bargaining chips at the resort of the US, he added “it is internationally known that if Iran had not fought terrorism, some of the capital cities of the countries in the region would have been conquered by ISIL forces.”
“Iran’s missile issue is a domestic problem and we will not allow anyone to meddle in our affairs. We have learned from the history and the conditions of the region that we need to depend on our own domestic abilities for defense. We are not similar to some other regional countries that follow some foreign senior brother or ally. Our power comes from the Iranian nation and this strong tie between the nation and the state is our greatest defense,” he added.
“We want to have access to missiles for purely defensive and preventive purposes and do not intend to invade any other country. All we have in mind is to build a free, developed and independent country and bring about peace, stability and economic growth to the region and root out extremism,” he concluded.
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