'Full-Scale War With West': Iran President Ahead Of Trump-Netanyahu Meet

Iran is in a full-scale war with the United States, Israel and European countries, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday.

Pezeshkian mentioned that Iran's military is now much stronger, adding the West's war on Tehran was "more complicated and more difficult" than the country's war with Iraq in the 1980s, which killed over 1 million people on both sides.

"We are in a full-scale war with the US, Israel, and Europe; they don't want our country to remain stable," said Pezeshkian, according to the Associated Press. "If the enemy chooses confrontation, they will naturally face a more decisive response," he added.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Pezeshkian have taken a firm stance against Western countries after the US and Israel attacked Iran's nuclear facilities in June, killing around 1,100 Iranians. Trump said he wanted to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insisted it was only experimenting with nuclear energy.

Pezeshkian said that Iran feels surrounded and pressured from all sides. "Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are putting us in difficulty and constraint, creating problems — in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security — while raising society's expectations," he added.

"On one side, they block our sales, our exchanges, our trade, and on the other side, expectations in society have risen. Consequently, we must all help with all our might to fix the country," he highlighted, according to The Hill.

The National News quoted Pezeshkian as saying that despite attacks, the people of Iran stood strong, adding, "All enemy calculations were that an attack would cause the country to descend into turmoil; but the people defended their Iran, their country, their religion, their culture, and their Leader."

Tensions flared at the UN Security Council recently as the US and Iran disagreed over the conditions for resuming nuclear negotiations. While Washington said it was ready for direct talks, Tehran rejected the proposed terms.

Since coming back to the White House in January this year, Trump has resumed his "maximum pressure" policy against Iran, which he also used during his first term, including new sanctions aimed at hurting Tehran's economy and cutting its oil revenues from international sales.