JAKARTA - President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday, Iran would end up like the Gaza Strip, Palestine if it did not have its missiles, stressing that its ballistic missile program was not negotiable.
"If the missiles we have for our defense are not there, Israel and the United States will destroy Iran like Gaza, without mercy for the old and the young," he said during a visit to Pakistan, launching Al Arabiya and AFP (24/6).
"We will never negotiate with anyone, under any circumstances, about our defense capabilities," he added.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif confirmed that the preliminary agreement signed by the United States and Iran, along with the mediator parties, did not mention ballistic missiles.
The Mullah's state launched drone missiles into Israeli territory and US-related facilities in neighboring countries in the region, in response to the February 28 attack that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other officials.
Iranian missiles were originally developed to compensate for its weak air defenses during the war with Iraq in the 1980s, and since then their range and accuracy have continued to increase.
Israel, which is located 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Iran, has long viewed the program as an existential threat.
Before the war, the Uncle Sam's country had sought to include ballistic missile programs, as well as Tehran's support for armed proxies, in negotiations on Iran's nuclear activities.
In recent days, US President Donald Trump seems to have softened his stance on the missile issue.
"I said that if other countries have it, it's a bit unfair if they don't have it," he said last week at the G7 summit in France.
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