Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council
Iran’s top security official has warned that any new US attack would trigger strikes on American military bases far beyond the region, including targets in Europe and islands previously thought to be outside the range of Iranian missiles.
Major General Mohsen Rezaee, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen network in a recent interview that if the United States “makes a mistake and attacks us,” Iran would not limit itself to nearby bases but would also hit “distant American bases” it has not previously targeted.
“If American aircraft take off from a distant military base and come to bomb Iran, we will target that base as well,” Rezaee said, adding that Iran’s defensive and offensive capabilities are now “far greater than on the first day of the war.”
He did not specify which bases or countries he was referring to.
Rezaee said if the United States and Israel had been able to bring down the Islamic Republic in the first days of launching the aggression, as they had declared and hoped they would, the war would not have reached the current dimensions affecting the entire world.
No family in the US or Europe has been spared the fallout
“Today there is no family in America or Europe that has not been harmed by the American attack on Iran, and no economic institution in the world… has not been affected by this attack. Even European leaders are speaking about this issue,” he said.
He stressed this was the outcome of “the exceptional resistance of the Iranian people,” who he said astonished the world by showing unprecedented steadfastness, and disrupted all US and Israeli calculations.
“The Iranian people proved that America and Israel have made great historic mistakes — mistakes that will go down in America’s history for centuries,” he said.
“I can say that in this war, we imposed a heavy defeat on the enemy that attacked Iran in the military, diplomatic, political and economic arenas,” Rezaee said.
Asked about the status of negotiations, Rezaee said Iran has achieved “great victories” in diplomacy as well.
He pointed out that Iran held three major diplomatic rounds with the Americans: the first before the 12-day war of last June, the second before the 40-day war early this year, and the third in Islamabad. In all three, he said, Iran proved it did not want war and that it was the United States that sought confrontation.
“It was very important for us to show world public opinion that America is the party that wants war,” he said.
He said the Americans scuttled the first round of talks and then went to war; abandoned negotiations in Geneva in the second round and launched an attack; and in Islamabad, despite reaching an agreement signed by both sides, reneged on their own signature.
“It rarely happens in history that a head of state signs an agreement and then, less than a month later, tears it up and sets it aside,” he said. Nonetheless, he said, Iran continues the diplomatic path seriously.
“We have set seven conditions, and if the Americans implement these conditions, we will reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
Rezaee said the Americans offered responses rigged with “deception,” which Iran rejected. “The Americans must provide a clear and explicit response to our seven conditions,” he said.
Iran’s nuclear program not up for discussion
The security chief said Iran’s nuclear program is not currently the subject of discussion and that Iran has announced specific conditions in that regard.
“First, we will not remove even a single gram of enriched material from Iran,” he said, adding that Iran has told “our Russian friends” that all enriched material will remain inside Iran and be used domestically because it has multiple applications.
He explained that Iran is designing nuclear-fueled ships and nuclear submarines and needs its enriched material for that, and may at some point produce small SMR-type reactors.
“So why should we transfer it abroad? Not a single gram, however small, of enriched material will leave Iran, and all of this material will remain in our own hands,” he said.
The second issue, he said, concerns rights granted to Iran under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. “All countries enjoy rights under this treaty, and we have 22 rights within its framework. As long as we are a member of the NPT, we have the right to enjoy all our rights and, in return, abide by all our obligations,” he said.
War will prove costly for Americans
Rezaee insisted that Iran wanted to impose “a cost on the Americans that makes aggression against Iran costly and becomes a deterrent factor.”
“What is this cost? Securing our rights,” he said. “Therefore, Iran’s negotiations and diplomacy, whether with other countries or with the Americans, are based on the principle of deterrence and the realization of regional security.”
On regional security, Rezaee said the war proved that reliance on the United States brings nothing but insecurity. “Before the war, everyone assumed that the US provides security; but now who in the region can say America is not a source of insecurity?” he asked.
“Therefore, we must continue the diplomatic path in a way that realizes security in West Asia,” he stressed.
Asked about the naval blockade and reports that a land blockade is also on the way, Rezaee said he believes the political capacity of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to continue the war has run out.
He said they no longer have the necessary political cover, internationally, legally, and domestically, to continue the military aggression.
“Therefore, if they want to carry out a new attack against Iran, by their own calculations the war will not last more than three to five days,” he said.
“They are now trying to identify an important objective they can achieve within these three or five days, but so far they have not been able to find such an objective.”
