Iran Marks National Army Day With Big Parades

Date: 18 April 2018 - 21:49

News ID: ۵۱۹۵۶

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would make or buy any weapons it needed to defend itself in a region beset by "invading powers", as the military paraded missiles and soldiers in front of him on National Army Day.
Fighter jets and bombers flew overhead as Rouhani told the Tehran crowd and a live TV audience on Wednesday that Iran's forces posed no threat to its neighbors.
"We tell the world that we will produce or acquire any weapons we need, and will not wait for their approval ... We tell our neighboring countries that our weapons are not against you, it's for deterrence," Rouhani said.
"We are not living in a normal region, and we see invading powers have built bases around us. Disregarding the principles of international law, they intervene in regional affairs and invade other countries without UN permission," Rouhani added.
U.S., British and French forces pounded Syria with airstrikes early on Saturday after the Syrian army’s remarkable advances in the fight against terrorists, including their expulsion of Takfiri militants from Damascus suburbs.
Britain, France and Germany have proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missiles and its advisory role in Syria’s war, in a purported bid to persuade U.S. President Donald Trump to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
Trump has delivered an ultimatum to the European signatories to fix what he saw as the "terrible flaws" of the deal, threatening to refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran.
U.S. sanctions will resume unless Trump issues fresh "waivers” to suspend them on May 12.
Rouhani stressed the peaceful nature of Iran’s defense program, saying the country has no intention to invade other countries or harm their interests.
"We want friendly and brotherly relations with our neighbors and we tell them that our weapons, our equipment, our missiles, our planes, our tanks are not against you, it is for deterrence," said Rouhani.
"The only way to resolve problems is political negotiation and peaceful behavior," he added.
The president hit out at the West for flooding the region with weapons with the aim of plundering its resources and harming the regional nations.
"Your weapons could neither bring independence for regional countries nor frighten great nations like Iran,” Rouhani said.
At the parade held near the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, armed forces displayed their new defense achievements, advanced military equipment and hardware.
It marked the unveiling of Iran’s latest domestically manufactured missile system called Kamin-2, a portable weapon designed to target enemy drones flying in low altitudes.
Among other defense hardware put on display were the country’s S-300, S-200, Tabas and Sayyad defense systems, as well as radars, tanks, armored vehicles and sniper rifles.
Similar events were held across the country, including in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman where Iran’s warships and destroyers sailed in the strategic waters in a show of power.