Iran’s Khamenei cites need to further develop Iran’s military after Trump threats

DUBAI - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Feb 12 Iran should further develop its military, including its missiles, after US President Donald Trump made threats of force against Tehran if it refused to negotiate over its nuclear programme.

Mr Khamenei spoke a day after Iran’s UN ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani condemned what he called “reckless and inflammatory statements” by Mr Trump in interviews with the New York Post and Fox News, in which he said he preferred doing a deal to prevent Tehran developing a nuclear weapon to bombing the country.

“Progress should not be stopped, we cannot be satisfied (with our current level). Say that we previously set a limit for the accuracy of our missiles, but we now feel this limit is no longer enough. We have to go forward,” Mr Khamenei said, citing a need to focus on innovation in the Iranian military.

“Today, our defensive power is well-known, our enemies are afraid of this. This is very important for our country,” he added after visiting a Tehran exhibition showcasing the latest developments in Iran’s defence sector.

Tehran insists its ballistic missile programme is purely defensive but it is seen in the West as a destabilising factor in a volatile, conflict-ridden region.

Mr Khamenei, who said on Feb 7 that talks with the United States were “not smart, wise or honourable”, made no mention of Mr Trump in his remarks on Feb 12.

Mr Trump last week restored his

“maximum pressure” policy towards Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero

to push the Islamic Republic into a deal that would severely constrain its disputed nuclear programme.

Western powers have long suspected that Iran’s uranium enrichment programme is a disguised project to develop nuclear bomb material. Iran denies this, saying it seeks nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Feb 10 questioned US sincerity in seeking talks with Tehran while imposing tougher sanctions echoing those Mr Trump implemented during his first, 2017 to 2021 term in office.

Mr Iravani, Tehran’s United Nations ambassador, wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council that the Trump administration’s policy “reinforces unlawful, unilateral coercive measures and escalates hostility against Iran”.

Though Iran has long denied nuclear weapon ambitions, it is “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to 60 per cent fissile purity, close to the roughly 90 per cent weapons-grade level, the UN nuclear watchdog chief told Reuters in December.

Tehran has in recent months announced new additions to its conventional weaponry, such as its first drone carrier and an underground naval base amid rising tensions with the US and its regional arch-enemy Israel. REUTERS