Iran insists it will not negotiate its ballistic missile program with the United States

Tehran.- Iran insisted on Wednesday that it will not negotiate its ballistic missile program with the United States and warned that any US aggression will be considered the beginning of a war that will spread throughout the Middle East region. “The missile capability of the Islamic Republic of Iran is not negotiable,” said the secretary of the country’s Defense Council, Ali Shamkhani, in statements to the media Nour News.

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Shamkhani, who is also an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, insisted that Iran’s powerful ballistic missile program is “a red line” in the negotiations that Tehran and Washington resumed last week in Oman. The politician also warned that “any limited attack will be considered by Iran as the beginning of a war” that will not be “limited to a specific geographical area or the two parties involved”. His statements come hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets in Washington with US President Donald Trump to discuss negotiations with Iran, among other issues. The American newspaper New York Times reported that Netanyahu’s main concern at the moment regarding Iran is its missiles that can reach Israeli territory, while Trump is more focused on the nuclear program.

Regarding the nuclear issue, the president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkian, stated this Wednesday that his country does not seek nuclear weapons and assured that it is ready for “any verification” of its atomic program, although he asserted that it will not accede to “excessive demands”.

“We are not seeking nuclear weapons. We have announced this repeatedly and are ready for any verification,” he said in a speech marking the 47th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Republic. Iran and the United States resumed negotiations last week to close a nuclear deal, in their first meeting since the 12-day war between Tehran and Tel Aviv, in which Washington participated with the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities. Both sides described the meeting as “good” and agreed to meet again “soon”, despite differences over the Iranian missile program and its support for regional groups such as Hezbollah or Hamas, which Washington wants to stop and Tehran refuses to do. Trump said yesterday that Iran is seeking “a deal” on the nuclear issue and warned that it would be “foolish” not to try, while sending new ships to the region where the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is already located along with its support group.