Iran warns of ‘stronger response’ to another Israeli act of aggression

“Iran provided a decisive and legitimate response to an illegal action by the [Israeli] regime against [our] diplomatic premises that took place in violation of the international laws,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a weekly press conference on Monday.

“But if another mistake takes place, Iran’s response will be stronger,” he added.

On April 1, the Israeli regime committed a terrorist attack against Iran’s diplomatic premises in the Syrian capital Damascus.

The Israeli attack resulted in the martyrdom of Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), his deputy, General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, and five of their accompanying officers.

In retaliation, the IRGC targeted the occupied territories on April 13 with a barrage of drones and missiles. The retaliatory strikes, dubbed Operation True Promise, have inflicted damage on Israeli military bases across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Kanaani addressed a plan announced recently by the European Union to impose more sanctions on Iran over the retaliatory strikes, saying the bloc would be “rewarding the aggressor” if it slapped such measures against the Islamic Republic.

“Should they take [such] measure, it would go down in Europe’s history as a reprehensible action.”

The official expressed surprise that Brussels could go ahead with sanctioning Tehran over its legitimate retaliation against the Zionist regime, but had so far stopped short of levying any punitive measures against Tel Aviv over the latter’s unspeakable atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

Kanaani, meanwhile, reminded the EU that its previous sanctions against the Islamic Republic had failed to hinder the country’s progress. “The policy of sanctions is a failed policy,” Kan’ani said, advising the bloc to “learn from the past”.

The spokesman pointed to the shooting down of three foreign quadcopters by the Islamic Republic’s air defense near the central city of Isfahan that caused no damage or injuries.

He said Iran and the United States had exchanged “some messages” following the development, but dismissed the incident as only a “vexatious” measure that “was not worth any follow-up on this level”.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kanaani commented on Iran’s nuclear activities, saying “Iran’s nuclear doctrine is completely clear. We consider peaceful use [of nuclear energy] to be our absolute right.”

The Islamic Republic would keep up its peaceful nuclear activities within the framework set by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the agency’s safeguards, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he stated.

“Nuclear weapons have no place in Iran’s defensive doctrine.”

Concluding his remarks, the spokesman identified the Israeli regime as a “threat to all regional countries”, adding that the regime’s October-present war on the Gaza Strip showed that “the usurping regime is no partner to peaceful plans, and thinks of nothing other than genocide and forced displacement of Palestinians.”

“Iran is definitely faced with a far-reaching view on the level of the international spheres that the issue of Palestine would not be resolved other than through putting an end to the [Israeli] occupation.”