Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday said his country is in a “full-scale war” with the United States, Israel and Europe, accusing the West of seeking to destabilise Iran.“We are in a full-scale war with the US, Israel and Europe; they don’t want our country to remain stable,” Pezeshkian said in an interview published on the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to The Associated Press.Pezeshkian and Khamenei have reinforced a hardline stance following a June US and Israel-led attack on Iran’s major nuclear facilities. Around 1,100 Iranians, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, were killed during the 12-day air war, according to AP.”Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are putting us in difficulty and constraint, creating problems — in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security-wise — while raising society’s expectations,” Pezeshkian said. He added: “On one side, they block our sales, our exchanges, our trade, and on the other side, expectations in society have risen. Consequently, we must all help with all our might to fix the country.”In response to Iran’s growing nuclear and missile activity, United States President Donald Trump indicated that Washington would consider further military action if Tehran rebuilt its nuclear programme or missile capacity. Speaking from Mar-a-Lago in Florida alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said, “Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them. But hopefully that’s not happening.”Trump also confirmed that the US would support Israeli strikes against Iran’s missile programme if necessary. “If they will continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear? Fast. OK? One will be: Yes, absolutely. The other is: We’ll do it immediately,” he said.The US president praised the recent military efforts, stating that Washington and Israel had been “extremely victorious” against their enemies. The MAGA chief used the examples of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and the June strikes on Iran.Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons, claiming its programme is for civilian energy purposes. Despite this, Trump has linked Iran’s nuclear capabilities with its military ambitions and insisted that Tehran should negotiate a deal with the US. “If they want to make a deal, that’s much smarter. They could have made a deal the last time before we went through a big attack on them, and they decided not to make the deal. They wish they made that deal,” he said.
