Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that Iran's missile program is non-negotiable, arguing that the country would have ended up "just like Gaza" without its ballistic missile capabilities in the face of the U.S.-Israeli threat.
"If the missiles we have for our defence 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 said during a visit to Pakistan, a key mediator in talks between Tehran and Washington seeking a permanent end to the Middle East war.
"We will never negotiate with anyone, under any circumstances, ever, about our defensive capabilities," he added.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meanwhile confirmed that the preliminary agreement signed by the U.S. and Iran, alongside the mediating parties, made no mention of ballistic missiles.
"There cannot be double standards... that some countries can have ballistic missiles and Iran shouldn't have. You cannot digest this duplicity," Sharif said.
