Iran will neither surrender nor bow to US bullying: Pezeshkian

President Masoud Pezeshkian says Tehran will not bow to US bullying, noting that Washington does not want an independent Iran so as to impose its sinister intentions on the country. 

“If Iran is standing up to America and Israel today, it is only because they want to bully us. We do not want to bow to bullying,” Pezeshkian told a meeting with Indian businesspeople, religious leaders and intellectuals in New Delhi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

He said that the United States and Israel claim to defend human rights while carrying out attacks that have killed civilians and damaged civilian infrastructure, noting that these same claimants try to portray Iran as a “terrorist country”.

“Are we terrorists that killed 168 innocent children at once? Are we terrorists that bombed and destroyed universities, scientists and human beings?” he said.

Pezeshkian was referring to a double-tap US-Israeli attack on an elementary school in Minab on February 28, which killed 168 people, mostly children and school staff. He was also referring to several US-Israeli strikes against multiple Iranian universities, residential areas and civilian infrastructure in the past six months. 

He questioned why, if the adversaries were seeking a military confrontation, they were targeting civilian infrastructure and people’s livelihoods.

“If they are men of war, they should fight with the military,” Pezeshkian said. “What do they have to do with people’s infrastructure, people’s bread and people’s livelihoods?”

He also questioned restrictions on access to essential supplies and communications. “If they are human beings, why do they block the way for water, food, bread and communications in society?” he said.

Pezeshkian said the aim was to pressure Iranians into submission by depriving them of basic facilities and cutting communications.

“Because they cannot force the Iranian people to surrender through bullying, they want to do something that will make people surrender,” he said.

“The Iranian people will not surrender,” he highlighted. 

The remarks come as Washington has resorted to increased economic pressure against the Iranian nation after failing to achieve war objectives.

Pezeshkian said Iran’s position was rooted in its “human and ideological beliefs,” stressing that Iranians regarded themselves as human beings and believed all people were entitled to equal rights.

“Iran will never trample on the rights of the oppressed; rather, it will always be a supporter and ally of the oppressed,” he said.

Pezeshkian also noted that Washington is seeking to prevent Iran from remaining independent and from serving its own people.

“America does not want us to remain independent,” he said. “It is doing everything it can to prevent us from serving our own people and … to impose its sinister intentions on Iran.”

“Who has said that a government in the world has the right to force other governments to surrender to its sinister intentions?” Pezeshkian asked, referring to the bullying behavior of the US. “Who has said that it should decide for the whole world and that everyone else must obey whatever it wants?”

“This is something we will not accept, and we are paying the price for it,” he said.

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