TEHRAN – President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that countries in the region will not be attacked by the Iranian Armed Forces as long as they do not allow the U.S. and Israel to use their soil and airspace for attacks against Iran.

The Trump administration and Israel began an illegal war—both under international law and the U.S. Constitution—against Iran last Saturday. On the first day of the war, they assassinated the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and killed at least 170 schoolgirls in a strike on an elementary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. Since then, the two regimes have continued bombardment, using 2tonne bombs to strike preevacuated military and Basij sites, residential buildings, medical facilities, more schools, commercial airports, and infrastructure producing clean water and electricity.

In a video message published Saturday, Pezeshkian said Israel and the U.S. will not see Iran capitulate, referring to an earlier social media post by U.S. President Donald Trump saying he wants “unconditional surrender” from Iran, a demand he had also raised during the 12day war in June before asking for a ceasefire.

“Under no circumstances will Iran surrender in the face of aggression, and enemies should abandon any hopes they have of seeing the Iranian nation capitulate,” Pezeshkian said.

The Iranian president also appeared to try to comfort regional countries that have hosted U.S. bases for decades, have thought of them as guarantors of their security, and have now been confronted with the fact that these very installations have become a source of insecurity for them. Pezeshkian said he “apologizes” to these countries, but they must know that Iran will continue to attack any country that helps the U.S. and Israel in their aggression against Iran.

Iran has attacked at least 14 U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq in 25 distinct missile and drone waves in the past eight days. Washington has lost billions of dollars because of these strikes so far. 

All these bases have directly or indirectly been used by the U.S. to attack Iran, both during the current war and the 12day conflict. Iran has not attacked the assets of the host countries themselves, though based on Article 51 of the UN Charter, such a move would not be illegal either.

Nonetheless, regional countries have expressed anger over the attacks, with experts saying these states also feel humiliated by what they see as Washington prioritizing the defense of Israel, which is simultaneously being pounded by Iranian missiles and drones.

Both the U.S. and Israel are heavily censoring the impact of Iranian strikes. Israel jails journalists or social media users who publish footage of strike impacts without authorization—approval that is never granted when a military site is hit. The regime has also banned television channels from broadcasting live from the occupied territories when Iranian projectiles are incoming.

It has been more difficult for the U.S. to hide the destruction at its bases, though its officials have yet to acknowledge the severe impact of Iranian attacks. Chinese satellite images, however, show extensive destruction at almost every base Iran has struck in recent days. The most heavily damaged are those in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. Iran is likely to focus more on U.S. military installations in Saudi Arabia in the coming days, where flightmonitoring platforms caught U.S. fighter jets taking off for attacks on Iran on Friday. The Saudi government has claimed it is not taking part in the aggression against Iran.

Pezeshkian’s apparent attempt to comfort regional countries was taken out of context by Trump, who is under growing pressure from U.S. lawmakers, European leaders, and the American public for having started a costly war that critics say lacks any strategy or exit plan.

In a post on social media, Trump said Iran had apologized because it is being “beat to hell” and can no longer hit U.S. bases in the region. Iran launched several attacks against American military installations after these remarks.

In his post, Trump also said regional countries had said “Thank you, President Trump” for making Iran the “loser of the Middle East.”

These assertions contrast with U.S. media reports suggesting that Persian Gulf Arab countries—which, aside from hosting U.S. bases, heavily invest in the U.S. economy each year—are angry at Washington for starting a war in their region without warning them about the costs.

Persian Gulf states are incurring heavy economic losses due to the sharp drop in tourism—one of the most important sources of income for countries like the UAE—as well as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has forced them to severely limit or even halt oil and LNG production because they can no longer export their energy products. Stock markets across the Persian Gulf have also suffered significant losses.

The stakes have been high for the Americans as well. By late Friday, gas prices had exceeded five dollars per gallon in some states, a twodollar increase from the prewar price. In Europe, energy prices have risen by over 70 percent.

American casualties are also high. The U.S. has so far announced only six or seven deaths but says the number may rise in the future. Iran says at least 220 American soldiers were killed or injured in the past 24 hours alone. Five hundred American soldiers had also been killed in the previous days, according to Iranian figures. Iran has been striking not only U.S. bases but also some nonmilitary buildings where U.S. forces had been hiding.

Experts say Trump appeared to believe that with the assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Republic would also collapse, and the people would rise up against the government. In the initial hours of the war, the Israeli military told Hebrew media that it expected the “military operations” against Iran to end in “48 hours.” Trump’s White House spokeswoman said the president began the war based on a “good feeling” that Iran was about to attack U.S. forces. The Pentagon has refuted those claims in classified remarks to American lawmakers, U.S. media report.

Meanwhile, inside Iran, the Assembly of Experts is working to choose the next Leader according to Iran’s constitution. The Assembly of Experts is made up of 88 members chosen by the public in elections held every four or five years.

Iranian officials currently at the helm say attacks against the U.S. and Israel will continue until the two regimes have “learned their lesson.”

“The defense policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran are firmly based on the guidance of our martyred Imam,” announced Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf in a Saturday post on X. He is temporarily fulfilling the duties of Iran’s Leader alongside the president and the judiciary chief, as per Iran’s constitution.

“As long as U.S. bases remain in the region, countries will not experience peace. All officials and the public are united on this principle,” he added.

Similar remarks were made by Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Eje’i as well as the Khatam Al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, which is the body overseeing the war.