Iran: We don't need 'green light' to bolster defenses

TEHRAN

Iran does not need to ask anyone for permission to develop its defensive capabilities, Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Army Chief-of-Staff Mohammad Hossein Bagheri as saying Wednesday.

Bagheri made the remark one day after Washington imposed sanctions on five Iranian citizens for alleged links to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps.

“Iran today has reached the height of its power,” IRNA quoted Bagheri as saying.

In its pursuit to develop a defensive capacity, he added, Iran “does not have to wait for a green light from others”.

The U.S. administration is threatening to impose “the strongest sanctions in history” if Iran fails to comply with the terms of a new deal that would replace a landmark 2015 agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group of nations (the UN Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany).

On May 8, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the deal and announced the re-imposition of sanctions.

Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. was preparing a raft of new sanctions against Tehran.