Iran is not seeking to wage war against any nation, President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday while at the same time stressing that Iranians were not going to cave to mounting US pressure and emerge.
The remarks by President Hassan Rouhani came as Tehran and Washington are edging toward a flashpoint after Iran announced it was breaking compliance with the nuclear deal with world powers and the Trump administration ordered 1,000 more troops to the Middle East.
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"We do not wage war with any nation," Rouhani said, speaking during the inauguration of a new terminal at Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport that will raise its capacity from 8 million to 13 million passengers a year.
"The entire Iranian nation is unanimous in confronting" US pressure, Rouhani said. "The end of this battle will see the victory of the Iranian nation."
He added that despite the US withdrawal last year from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal world powers, Iran had remained "loyal to its commitments, to ... international agreements."
But on Monday, Iran's nuclear agency announced it will surpass the uranium stockpile limits set by its 2015 nuclear deal in the next 10 days, raising pressure on Europeans trying to save the accord a year following the US withdrawal.
Hours later, the Pentagon announced it was sending about 1,000 additional American troops to the Middle East to bolster security in the region in the face of what US officials said was a growing threat from Iran.
The announcement by Iran's nuclear agency marked yet another deadline set by Tehran. Rouhani already has warned Europe that a new deal needs to be in place by July 7 or the Islamic Republic would increase its enrichment of uranium.
The developments indicate Iran has begun its own maximum pressure campaign after facing one from President Donald Trump that deeply cut into its sale of crude oil abroad and sent its economy into freefall. Europe has so far been unable to offer Iran a way around the US sanctions.
The escalation follows attacks last week near the Strait of Hormuz on oil tankers, assaults that Washington has blamed on Iran. While Iran has denied being involved, it laid mines in the 1980s targeting oil tankers around the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's crude oil passes.
Meanwhile, an Iranian official warned that Iran might all but quit a treaty aimed to curb the spread of nuclear weapons unless European powers saved the 2015 deal.
"There is not much time left until the end of the 60 days ultimatum given by Iran to the Europeans to save the (2015) deal. After that Iran will suspend implementation of the Non-proliferation Treaty," said Mojtaba Zolnour, who is head of the nuclear committee of parliament, said on Monday.
The NPT is a crucial part of the inspection regime currently imposed on Iran's nuclear program, which has been incorporated in the 2015 nuclear deal.
