TEHRAN -- President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday that if the enemies strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, the country’s youth will be ready to simply rebuild.
“They threaten us by hitting our nuclear centers. But you cannot destroy the brains of our children,” Pezeshkian said during a speech in Bushehr, home to one of Iran’s biggest nuclear plants.
“If you hit 100 nuclear centers, our children will build a thousand other ones,” he said, addressing Iran’s enemies. 
U.S. President Donald Trump raised on Monday the possibility of Israel hitting Iran in an interview with Fox News saying he would prefer to make a deal with Iran.
On Thursday, Iran’s Air Force chief Gen. Hamid Vahedi said, “We tell all countries, friends and foes alike, that our country’s doctrine is defensive, but we will respond with force against any enemy attack.”
Pezeshkian visited the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, which is located in southern Iran, authorizing operations at Units 2 and 3 of the facility, the Islamic Republic’s sole nuclear power plant. 
He toured various sections of the first unit, including its control room and turbine, where plant managers and experts briefed him on the details of the plant’s operations, electricity production, and power transmission to the grid.
He also visited the construction sites of Units 2 and 3 of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant and, at the end of the tour, ordered the installation of the first key equipment component for the Unit 2’s reactor building to enhance safety standards, along with the excavation of pump house buildings for both units.
The first phase of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, currently operating at a capacity of 1,015 megawatts, has generated 72 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity over 11 years since its commissioning. This has prevented the consumption of 114 million barrels 

of crude oil, saving over $8 billion in fossil fuel costs.
Besides recovering an investment equivalent to four times the plant’s construction cost, its operation has also facilitated the training of specialized personnel and the expansion of clean and sustainable energy production.
Units 2 and 3 of the power plant each have a nominal production capacity of 1,057 megawatts.
According to Muhammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), the facility has, over the recent years, made significant advances, leading to the generation of as much as 7.4 billion kilowatts of nuclear electricity.
Earlier in the day, Pezeshkian said the enemies are desperately seeking to subjugate the Iranian people through sanctions and threats but all in vain.
“The enemies want us to be humiliated before them with sanctions and threats but we will not be subjugated and we will solve our problems by relying on the people,” Pezeshkian said in a meeting with intellectuals in Bushehr.
He weighed on the contradictory U.S. approach toward Iran, saying President Donald Trump’s claims that he wants to negotiate with Iran but at the same time imposes the toughest sanctions against Tehran.
“We do not want anyone to sanction us,” Pezeshkian said, adding, however, “It is not that if the U.S. imposes sanctions on us, we cannot do anything. We will run the country by reliance on domestic capabilities.”
He reiterated Iran’s policy to interact with all countries in a spirit of peace and fraternity, emphasizing, “We strive to establish cordial and friendly relations with our neighbors.”
Pezeshkian expressed Iran’s keenness to negotiate and criticized Washington’s claims about its willingness to hold talks with Tehran while restricting the access of Iranian people to essentials, including medicine.
The president added that solidarity, interaction and planning play a key role in settling domestic problems.
On February 6, the United States imposed its first set of sanctions on Iran after Trump revived his so-called maximum pressure strategy against the Islamic Republic. 
The move came two days after the American president said he was willing to revive negotiations with Iran but signed an executive order, restoring his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Pezeshkian visited the Shahid Mahallati shipbuilding industries in Bushehr, where he unveiled the 10 vessels manufactured by the company and oversaw their joining to Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO).
The unveiling also marked the manufacturing of six fire-fighting vessels.
Ali Darabi, the CEO of the Shahid Mahallati shipbuilding complex, said the company has the capacity to manufacture, repair, and overhaul more than 200 large, medium, and small vessels per year.
The company, he added, has built fix vessels and revamped dozens others belonging to the Iranian armed forces.
Additionally on Thursday, Pezeshkian visited the Iran Marine Industrial Company, also known as SADRA.
As one of the largest contractors for offshore oil and gas projects in Iran, SADRA specializes in engineering services and shipbuilding, along with the construction and installation of oil terminals and offshore oil and gas facilities, as well as coastal protection and dock construction.