TEHRAN — Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has warned the U.S. that any provocative action in the region with the purpose of fomenting insecurity will draw a “decisive response” from Iran.

Mojtaba Zonnour also emphasized that Iran is not after any war in the region or elsewhere, Tasnim reported.

“We will by no means start any action resulting in a war in the region. But the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces has warned the Americans that if they seek to cause trouble, make provocative moves, and ignore Iran’s rights in the Persian Gulf and the region, the Islamic Republic will not give up guarding its rights,” Zonnour said.

“With the agility, power of deterrent operation, capabilities and mobility of its acting forces in the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran will definitely make the Americans regret their actions,” he remarked.

“The Islamic Republic neither is willing nor plans to create insecurity and war in the region, but it is able to smash the hands of anybody seeking to make the region insecure and to defend the (Iranian) nation’s rights vigorously,” the top lawmaker added.

Tensions are currently boiling between Iran and the United States.

Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaee has said the Islamic Republic will fire missiles at American bases across the region if the U.S. takes military actions against Iran in the Persian Gulf.

In an interview with Al Jazeera last week, Rezaee dismissed as part of a propaganda campaign the U.S. president’s recent threat that the U.S. navy will fire at the IRGC boats in the Persian Gulf.

All American military bases across the region are under surveillance, he emphasized, warning the U.S. that if Iran’s “national security” is put in jeopardy, those bases will be hit with missiles.

Iran will never start a war with the U.S., Rezaee underlined, but made it clear that if Washington wages a war, it will be Tehran which decides when to end it. 

He further said that a UN arms embargo on Iran is going to end soon, stressing that after lifting of the embargo, nobody could prevent Iran from purchasing conventional weapons.

The remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump said on April 22 that he had told the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” Iranian gunboats that “harass” U.S. ships.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry subsequently summoned the Swiss ambassador to protest Trump’s provocative statement and the U.S. Navy’s acts of harassment in the Persian Gulf.

“The Swiss envoy to Tehran, as representative of the United States’ interests, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in this respect. Iran’s strong protest over the country’s presence and illegal and destabilizing actions in northern parts of the Persian Gulf and Iran’s coasts was conveyed in a note,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi stated.

Foreign Minister Zarif also reacted to Trump’s military threats, suggesting that it is better that Trump pay attention to the needs of U.S. military personnel that over 5000 of them are suffering from the Covid-19 rather than “engage in threats cheered on by Saddam's terrorists”.

Writing on his Twitter account, Zarif also said, “U.S. forces have no business 7,000 miles away from home, provoking our sailors off our OWN Persian Gulf shores.”

MH/PA