Sorry.. We only strike our neighbors if we are struck - Statement from the Iranian President

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has apologized for the attacks on neighboring countries during the ongoing war with the United States and Israel, and has announced that if those countries do not attack Iran, they have decided to halt attacks targeting them.

Addressing the nation on Iranian state television on Saturday, the President stated that the Iranian Interim Leadership Council has approved the decision to no longer launch missile attacks on neighboring countries. However, he emphasized that Iran will never surrender to its enemies, and firmly declared that the enemies' hope of seeing the Iranian people surrender should be taken with them to their graves.

This new decision is announced against the backdrop of Iran continuously launching missile attacks across the region for about a week, in retaliation for the assassination of its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. These attacks have severely impacted many areas in the Gulf region, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain, and videos showing the massive destruction caused have now been released to the media.

This war situation began on February 28, when the United States and Israel jointly launched a series of airstrikes against Iran under the name 'Operation Epic Fury'. The breakdown of nuclear talks between the two sides and accusations that Iran had resumed its nuclear activities were the primary reasons for this attack, and several major Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran, became targets of these airstrikes.

In this joint American-Israeli attack on the official residence of the Iranian Supreme Leader in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei, as well as his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter, were killed on the spot. Additionally, Khamenei's wife, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, who was receiving treatment for serious injuries sustained in the attack, also reportedly died later.