Iranian intelligence minister said on Wednesday that the US President Donald Trump's so-called peace through strength policy seeks to pressure Iran into submission, marking another defiant comment leveled at Tehran's perceived nemesis in recent days.
“Enemies have replaced ‘peace through strength’ with ‘surrender through crime,’ creating conditions through spectacle and propaganda to manipulate public opinion against us,” Esmaeil Khatib told officials at a gathering in the town of Shahrekord.
Trump’s peace through strength is a foreign policy doctrine emphasizing military buildup, deterrence and sanctions to avoid wars in a revival of an approach the Reagan administration deployed with the Soviet Union in its latter days.
“The phrase ‘peace through strength’ reflects the very crimes they committed in Gaza, in Syria and Lebanon, and in our own country, where they martyred more than a thousand people,” Khatib said, according to state media.
On June 22, the United States carried out airstrikes on Iran’s key nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. The attacks capped a surprise 12-day Israeli military campaign on Iran which badly weakened its Mideast foe.
After the attacks, Iran suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), prompting three European countries - Germany, France and the UK - to trigger the resumption of UN sanctions on Tehran last month.
The new measures will pile pressure on Iran's already teetering economy, but officials insist Iran will not alter their stance opposed to the Israel and the United States.
Trump said on Monday that Iran could not withstand the sanctions but would likely return to negotiations, in his latest conciliatory remarks amid signs of diplomatic progress on Gaza.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appeared to reject Trump's peace overture and said US offers of diplomacy demanded Iran relinquish defense capabilities in an approach the 86-year-old theocrat decried as "bullying."
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday criticized US President Donald Trump’s call for dialogue with Tehran, saying his remarks about peace were inconsistent with Washington’s record of sanctions, military strikes and support for Israel.
