Iran “does not pose a threat to any country,” the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday.
He said the Islamic republic must become strong enough to ward off the “enemy’s threats” and prevent a war.
“We must become strong so that there will not be a war, become strong so that enemies’ threats will end,” Khamenei told a gathering of air force commanders and staff aired on state television.
“This is to prevent threats, to maintain the country’s security,” he added.
Iran funds the Gaza-based Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups and Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror organization, all of which are sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Khamenei called US sanctions on the Islamic Republic “criminal” but said they were “an opportunity” to make Iran less dependent on oil exports and focused on local industry.
Khamenei also said Iran had a strong air force despite decades of US pressure and sanctions on the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “Our Air Force, which had no right to and couldn’t even repair parts of aircraft [before the revolution] now builds planes,” Khamenei was quoted as saying.
On Wednesday Khamenei vowed that Tehran would fund Palestinian terror groups to the best of its ability, asserting that it was the proper response to the unveiling of the Trump peace plan.
“We believe that Palestinian-armed organizations will stand and continue resistance, and the Islamic Republic sees supporting Palestinian groups as its duty,” he said in an address published on his website. “So it will support them however it can and as much as it can, and this support is the desire of the Islamic system and the Iranian nation.” READ MORE