Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that the Islamic republic must become strong enough to ward off the “enemy’s threats” and prevent a war.
Khamenei also said Iran had a strong air force despite decades of US pressure and sanctions on the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“We must become strong so that there will not be a war, become strong so that enemy’s threats will end,” he told a gathering of air force commanders and staff.
“We do not want to threaten anyone... This is to prevent threats, to maintain the country’s security,” he added in a speech aired on state television.
Tensions escalated between Tehran and Washington after a January 3 US drone strike killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Iran retaliated days later by firing a wave of missiles at American troops stationed in Iraq. Its defence forces had been braced for US retaliation when they shot down a Ukraine International Airlines flight a few minutes after take-off from Tehran on January 8.
“Our Air Force, which had no right to & couldn’t even repair parts of aircrafts (before the revolution) now builds planes,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on his English-language Twitter account.
“Sanctions are literally crimes, BUT they can be turned into opportunities,” he added.
In 2018, the United States withdrew unilaterally from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran and began reimposing sanctions as part of its “maximum pressure” campaign on the country.
Top EU diplomat Josep Borrel visited Tehran last week on a mission aimed at lowering tensions over the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme, which has been crumbling since the US withdrawal.