TEHRAN – President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a phone conversation with Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere that Iran will definitely counter any threat against its security and interests with strength and power.
Pezeshkian said tension, unrest and conflict is detrimental both to Iran and the region as well as the entire world.
He said Iran has never sought to produce nuclear weapons, affirming the country’s principled policy on defusing tensions and fostering unity in the region.
Iran, Pezeshkian added, has always cooperated with the International Atomic Energy Agency on verification of the country’s nuclear activities and will continue to do so.
Referring to the ongoing sensitive situation in the region and the world, he said Iran has always made efforts to maintain regional peace, stability and security and prevented the occurrence of any war and conflict.
Pezeshkian said Israel “is attempting to portray the peaceful nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a factor of insecurity through fabrication of lies.”
“Unfortunately, the Zionist regime, as the main factor of tension and crisis in the region, is inciting war and committing crime and genocide against the oppressed people of Palestine.” 
The Norwegian prime minister, for his part, said his country supports the peaceful settlement of issues in the region and is ready to play a role in this regard.
Stoere pointed to the commonalities between the two countries and expressed Oslo’s keenness to improve cordial relations with Tehran.
Iran’s Army Ground Force chief Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari said Monday his forces are completely ready to give a decisive response to any possible act of aggression against the country.
Speaking to reporters here, Heidari said the Iranian armed forces relentlessly pursue the guidelines of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
“The finger of the armed forces is on trigger and they are in full preparedness,” he added.
He said the armed forces have made all the necessary preparations and have all the resources to counter any threats and would heavily defeat the aggressors.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he sent a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei last week asking negotiations, with the alternative to talks being force during an interview with Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
The Islamic Republic has dismissed receiving any letter, with the Persian daily Kayhan suggesting
 Trump had possibly destroyed it after sounding out Iran’s response. 
Ayatollah Khamenei on Saturday said that the insistence of some bullying powers on holding talks with Iran does not aim to solve issues, emphasizing that Iran would never accept the expectations of bullying states.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Monday categorically dismissed the possibility of engaging in negotiations under pressure and intimidation.
“We will NOT negotiate under pressure and intimidation. We will NOT even consider it, no matter what the subject may be,” Araghchi said in a post on his X account.
“Negotiation is different from bullying and issuing diktats,” he added.
He reaffirmed the everlasting peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear energy program, emphasizing that there is fundamentally no such thing as its “potential militarization.”
Araghchi also said consultations between Iran and the European troika – France, Germany and Britain – and separately with Russia and China are underway “on equal footing and mutual respect.”
“The aim is to explore ways to build more confidence and more transparency on our nuclear energy program in return for the lifting of unlawful sanctions,” the top Iranian diplomat explained.
He noted that the U.S. enjoyed Iran’s respect in the past whenever it was respectful in its discourse, but it was confronted whenever it adopted a threatening posture.
“Every action compels a reaction,” Araghchi stated.