The president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, said on Saturday that his country would never surrender to Israel and the United States as the Middle East war entered its second week.
Iran’s enemies “must take their wish for the unconditional surrender of the Iranian people to their graves,” Pezeshkian said in a speech broadcast on state TV.
On February 28, Israel and the US attacked the country, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic republic, and starting a regional crisis.
Since then, the Iranian government has retaliated by attacking US and Israeli interests in neighboring nations, primarily in the Gulf, with missiles and drones.
Since Khamenei’s murder, Iran has been governed by an interim leadership council, of which Pezeshkian is one of three members.
Pezeshkian apologized to neighboring countries during the address for Iran’s actions throughout the area and assured them that they would not be targeted unless attacks came from them.
“I must apologize on my own behalf and on behalf of Iran to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran,” he said.
“The interim leadership council agreed yesterday that no more attacks will be made on neighboring countries and no missiles will be fired unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries.”
