Iran’s president said he has instructed the military not to attack any country that isn’t striking the Islamic Republic, even as projectiles continued to be fired at the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and other states.
Masoud Pezeshkian said in a speech on Saturday that Iran’s interim leadership council took the decision a day earlier. Yet there was no sign of Iranian forces easing off their strikes on Arab Gulf countries, none of which have joined the week-long US-Israel bombardment of the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s armed forces have been instructed “not to attack or launch missiles at neighboring countries unless attacked from there,” Pezeshkian said. He apologized to neighboring countries for “being attacked by Iran.”
“We have no intention of attacking neighboring countries,” he added, calling them “our brothers.”
Around the same time he spoke, sirens and missile alerts went off in Bahrain and Qatar. In Dubai, Emirates suspended flights briefly after another round of projectiles disrupted the operations of the world’s largest international airline.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted drones in the Empty Quarter desert that were heading toward the Shaybah oil field, which has the capacity to pump 1 million barrels of crude a day.
Gulf states have urged Iran to avoid retaliating against them and the likes of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have said the US and Israel cannot use their airspace or territory for any attacks on the Islamic Republic.
“We must resolve this situation through diplomacy rather than fighting with neighboring countries,” Pezeshkian said. “The idea that we would surrender unconditionally — they must take such a dream to the grave.”
Pezeshkian sits on the three-man interim leadership council that’s nominally in charge of Iran after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a week ago. It’s unclear how much control he and the other two members — senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the head of the judiciary — have over the Iranian military right now.
Iran has a so-called “mosaic” defense strategy, which is designed so the military can operate even when senior figures are killed and communications are difficult. It includes giving military units more power to make decisions independently.
Soon after Pezeshkian’s speech, the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting quoted a spokesman for the armed forces saying they will not “attack countries that did not provide the space or means for aggression against us.”
“Since the first day of Israel’s aggression, wherever the attack against us originated, it became a legitimate target for Iran,” the spokesperson said, according to IRIB. “Our strikes against them will continue,” they said of Israel and the US.
Bloomberg reported on Friday that Saudi Arabia has stepped up direct engagement with Iran to try and contain a war that is causing havoc in the Middle East and stressing global markets.
The Saudi talks have involved both security agencies and diplomats, but it’s unclear whether they have included higher-ranking officials, according to several European officials.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.