Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday robustly defended his country's arsenal, claiming that lacking a ballistic program would have left the nation vulnerable to devastation comparable to the destruction in the Gaza Strip. The head of state characterized Tehran's rocket technology as an absolute red line.
During an official diplomatic visit to Pakistan - a key mediating nation facilitating dialogue between Washington and Tehran to establish a lasting ceasefire - Pezeshkian underscored the strategic necessity of their arsenal.
“If the missiles we have for our defense did not exist, Israel and the United States would have ploughed Iran just like Gaza, showing no mercy to either the old or the young," he declared, as quoted by news agencies.
The Iranian president remained unyielding regarding the prospect of future concessions.
“We will never negotiate with anyone, under any circumstances, ever, about our defensive capabilities," he added.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for his part, confirmed that the preliminary truce blueprint signed by American and Iranian representatives, alongside the international mediators, completely omitted any stipulations regarding long-range rocketry.
The Islamic Republic first invested in its missile industry during the 1980s conflict with Iraq to counter its severely deficient air defense capabilities. Over subsequent decades, the weapon systems have steadily improved in both precision and maximum operational range.
Israel has long categorized Iran’s expanding rocket enterprise as a direct threat to its national survival. Prior to the outbreak of the current hostilities, American diplomats had actively tried to loop both the ballistic program and Tehran's funding of regional proxy forces into broader negotiations surrounding Iran's nuclear architecture.
However, US President Donald Trump has recently signaled a potential shift in the White House's strict stance on the missile issue.
“I’m saying that if other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some," Trump commented last week while attending the G7 summit in France.