Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian attends a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 16, 2024. Photo: WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Majid Asgaripour via REUTERS

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile program as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran’s arch-foe Israel is able to “drop missiles on Gaza every day.”

The Islamic Republic has for years defied Western calls to limit its missile program.

The United States and its allies have more recently accused Iran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, imposing fresh sanctions on Moscow and Tehran.

Both countries have denied the claims.

“If we don’t have missiles, they will bomb us whenever they want, just like in Gaza,” Pezeshkian said, referring to the conflict in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

He reiterated Tehran’s official stance, calling on the international community “to first disarm Israel before making the same demands to Iran.”

Pezeshkian also said in a televised news conference on Monday that Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis. His remarks came one day after the Iran-backed terrorist group said a missile it fired at Israel was a hypersonic one.

“It takes a person a week to travel to Yemen [from Iran] — how could this missile have gotten there? We don’t have such missiles to provide to Yemen,” Pezeshkian said.

However, last year Iran presented what it described as Tehran’s first domestically made hypersonic ballistic missile, with state media publishing pictures of the missile named “Fattah” at a ceremony.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.