Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi pronounced on Friday, February 2, 2024, that his country will not start any war.
However, he added, “if anyone wants to bully us, they will receive a strong response.”
“Before, when they [the US] wanted to talk to us, they said the military option is on the table. Now they say they have no intention of a conflict with Iran,” Raisi said in a televised speech.
“The Islamic Republic’s military power in the region is not and never has been a threat to any country. Rather, it ensures security that the countries of the region can rely on and trust,” Raisi added.
Tehran’s military power has not and will not pose a threat to any country in the region, the President added, saying that Iran’s strength only creates security for the countries around it.
Raisi’s comments came after days of speculation about how the U.S might retaliate after three U.S soldiers were killed last Saturday in a strike on their base in Jordan by an Iranian-backed group.
Four U.S officials told a news agency that the U.S has assessed that the drone that killed three of its soldiers and also wounded more than 40 other people, was made by Iran.
Sources told the news agency that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were pulling senior officers out of Syria.
Iran has denied involvement in the drone attack in Jordan.
It was reported on Thursday, February 1, 2024, that the U.S had approved plans for multi day strikes in Iraq and Syria against multiple targets, including Iranian personnel and facilities in those countries.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s pro-Iran al-Nujaba armed group said that it intends to press on with attacks on U.S forces in the Middle East, despite Washington’s threat to hit back after three of its soldiers were killed in Jordan.
“Any [U.S] strike will result in an appropriate response,” al-Nujaba leader, Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement.
The armed group said that it will continue its actions until its demands are met for U.S troops to leave Iraq and an end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Adviser Killed In Damascus
Also on Friday, semi-official Iranian news sites disclosed that an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Adviser in Damascus has been killed in an Israeli missile attack that targeted a southern district of the Syrian capital.
Earlier, Syria’s state news agency, citing a Syrian military source, said that the country’s military had downed a number of Israeli missiles launched from the Golan Heights at southern Damascus.
The Iranian news sites identified the dead man as Saeid Alidadi without sharing his rank.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor also said that “three members of pro-Iran groups, including an Iranian and an Iraqi national” were killed in the Israeli air strikes south of the Syrian capital, adding the toll was provisional.
“We do not comment on reports in the foreign media,” the Israeli military said after the latest strikes.
During more than a decade of civil war in Syria, Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on the country, primarily targeting Iran-backed forces as well as Syrian army positions.
However, such attacks have intensified since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, 2023.