Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stressed on the importance, as well as benefits, of his country’s arsenal. During his recent visit to Pakistan, he said: “If we do not have missiles, Israel and the US will bomb us whenever they want, just like in Gaza.”

Talking to the AFP in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, President Pezeshkian stressed: “If the missiles we have for our defence did not exist, Israel and the US would have ploughed Iran just like Gaza, showing no mercy to either the old or the young.” He heavily criticised the US, stating that Washington DC’s promotion of Human Rights was fundamentally hypocritical. According to the President, Western powers use Human Rights as a pretext to secure resources and interfere with other nations while ignoring atrocities in different parts of the globe. He added: “We will never negotiate with anyone, under any circumstances, ever, about our defensive capabilities.”

On June 17, 2026, President Pezeshkian and his US counterpart Donald John Trump electronically signed a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to end the months-long war. While Trump signed the document in France following the G7 Summit, Pezeshkian signed it in Tehran. The Iranian President claimed that the document made no mention of his country’s defence programmes and that such matters would never be included in any agreement.

Pakistani Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, too, confirmed the matter, saying: “I would say with fullest command at my domain that this MoU does not mention ballistic missiles. It was never on the table, it was never on the agenda and the Iranian side never even wanted to discuss it. So that is not an impression, that is a fact of matter.“

The ongoing standoff stems from Iran’s suspension of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following the Iran-US conflict. According to the US, the interim peace agreement signed between the two countries grants IAEA inspectors access to the Iranian nuclear sites. However, Tehran has announced that it will not permit inspectors from the IAEA to visit sites damaged in US and Israeli strikes, stating that there is “no protocol” in place for such inspections, despite recent interim de-escalation agreements made with Washington DC.

Shortly thereafter, the US President has made it clear that if Iran blocks nuclear inspectors, he will cancel peace talks and there will be severe consequences.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das