Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian published a letter on social media this Wednesday “to the people of the United States”, arguing that Donald Trump is being “influenced and manipulated” by Israel in the attack on the Islamic Republic.
Pezeshkian denounces a disinformation campaign against his country and asks Americans to reflect on Trump’s past policy of not involving the country in conflicts abroad:
“Is ‘America First’ really one of the government’s priorities today?” he asks.
O President of the Islamic Republic denies that it poses a threatafter stating that the regime never started a war and that, in the current conflict, started by the February 28 attack by US and Israeli forces, it “sought an agreement and fulfilled its commitments”.
“Presenting Iran as a threat”, he states, “is merely a product of the political and economic whims of the powerful, of the need to manufacture an enemy to justify pressure, maintain military dominance, sustain the arms industry and control strategic markets.”
“In an environment like this, if a threat does not exist, it is invented,” says the Iranian president, who maintains that if the country tried to improve its defensive capabilities, it was in “legitimate self-defense” against the concentration of US forces and bases around Iran.
In the letter, the leader of the Islamic Republic insists that the Iranian people “do not harbor enmities against other nations, including the people of the United States, Europe or neighboring countries.”
He is particularly critical of Israel, which he accuses of trying to divert attention from its crimes against the Palestinians and to use “every American soldier and every cent of the American taxpayer for their illegitimate interests.”
Pezeshkian argues that continuing on the path of confrontation “is more costly and useless than ever”, but warns that in its history Iran “has survived many aggressors”.
Tehran denied having called for a ceasefire
Trump’s claims are “false and baseless”, said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, quoted by the Iranian Mehr news agency.
Before the Mehr news, the Iranian embassy in Madrid had assured in a social media post that Iran officially denied having requested a ceasefire.
The diplomatic representation attached a screenshot of the message posted by Trump, according to Spanish news agency EFE.
“The new president of the Iranian regime, much less radicalized and much more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a ceasefire,” Trump announced, without specifying which Iranian leader he was referring to.
“We will consider it [o cessar-fogo] when the Strait of Hormuz is open, free and unimpeded”, he assured.
Until then, the The United States will continue to “bomb Iran into annihilation or, as some say, until it returns to the Stone Age!”added the North American leader.
Trump announced earlier that he will deliver an “important speech” to the nation at 9pm in Washington (2am on Thursday in Lisbon) about the war, in a message that comes after a series of comments about the possible end of the conflict.
The American leader said on Tuesday that he expected the United States to withdraw from the conflict in the Middle East in “two or three weeks.”
