Iran to Continue Boosting Its Missile Capabilities: Shamkhani

In an interview with Aljazeera on Wednesday, Shamkhani said along with its missile program, Iran will also keep supporting resistance groups in the region.

“We will continue our support for Hamas, Islamic Jihad Movement, Hezbollah and the axis of resistance in the region,” he said, according to a report by Fars News Agency.

Touching on the situation in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’s acts of sabotage, he said while Yemen’s Ansarullah Movement welcomed Europe’s call for a ceasefire in the Arab country during the holy month of Ramadan, Saudi Arabia rejected it.

Thousands of Yemenis including women and children have been killed and many others injured in Saudi airstrikes on Yemen since March 2015. The UN has warned against the worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen over the past decades.

Shamkhani also referred to the currently severed ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia and said Tehran is ready for constructive and reasonable talks with Saudi Arabia without any preconditions.

He also dismissed the latest threats by the US officials against Iran and said the US doesn’t have the guts to wage a military war on Iran and its efforts to slap further economic sanctions on Iran will end up in failure.

In his first major foreign policy address, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday that Washington would increase its financial pressure on Iran by imposing the “strongest sanctions in history” on the Islamic Republic if Tehran refused to change the course of its foreign and domestic policy.

Shamkhani also reacted to the statements by some Russian official calling for the withdrawal of Iranian and Hezbollah forces from Syria and said the Islamic Republic will never leave Syria because its presence is at the request of the Syrian government.

On the possible adventurism of the US in the region, Shamkhani said Iran will give a direct and immediate crushing response to any violence by the US.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he also referred to the latest violence by the Zionist regime against Syria and the Arab country’s response to the military violation and said the Zionist regime has received a clear message that any act of violence would be faced with direct and crushing response.