Official: Iran to Counter Any Coalition Against It

Date: 25 August 2019 - 21:52

News ID: ۶۹۷۳۱

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – A defense adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Sunday deplored a recent push by the U.S. to form a coalition in the Persian Gulf region and said Iran will not tolerate any alliance against it.
"In our view, formation of any coalition in the region without the participation of regional countries would create tensions,” Brigadier General Hussein Dehqan said.
"Therefore, anyone joining this coalition is considered to have made a hostile act against the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding that Iran reserves the right to defend itself and confront this coalition.
"Certainly, we will not allow a coalition in our region to create ... a situation against us; we will certainly not tolerate this situation,” the top adviser said.
He further blamed the occupying regime of Israel for the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and said the Zionist lobby in the U.S. is luring the White House into forming the coalition in the region.
The U.S. has announced plans to form a coalition to supposedly protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz from what it calls an Iranian threat following a series of mysterious attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman.
Tehran has warned that such sabotage operations may be part of a general ploy to target Iran amid increasing regional tensions.
The U.S. has asked its allies, including Germany, Japan, France, Britain and the occupying regime of Israel, to join the coalition.
The call has, however, not been warmly received, with the Zionist regime and Britain becoming the only parties which have said flat out that they would join the alliance.
Zionist FM Israel Katz said on August 7 that the regime would be part of such coalition to "protect the security of the Persian Gulf.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said this month that Tehran considers any Israeli presence in the region a clear threat to its national security, and reserves the right to counter it.