A senior Iranian military official branded U.S. leaders disloyal and cruel on
Wednesday and told parliament Tehran would not bow to Washington’s pressure to limit its military activities.
“Iranian armed forces are now, thanks to God, more prepared than ever and will not wait for the permission or approval of any power to develop defense capabilities,” Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Bagheri was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
The statement came two days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would impose “the strongest sanctions in history” if Tehran did not curb its regional influence and limit its missile programme.
On May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran that had lifted sanctions on the Islamic Republic in exchange for curbs to its nuclear programme.
Bagheri, the Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Chief, called U.S. leaders “disloyal, cruel, criminal, isolated, angry, corrupt, and on the Zionist regime’s payroll”.
He said Washington did not have the courage for a military confrontation with Tehran, IRNA reported.
In a related development, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif called U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments about Iran “untrue” and based on “old illusions” on Wednesday and said Washington had become a hostage to pressure groups.
Zarif said Pompeo had repeated old allegations against Tehran “only with a stronger and more indecent tone”.
“Pompeo and other U.S. officials are trapped in old illusions … They are taken hostage by corrupt pressure groups,” Zarif said in a live interview on state television. (Reuters/NAN)
