TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that it is very important to boost the country’s military power.

“The military equipment and the armed forces are very important and we should not ignore boosting them,” Zarif said during a speech at Amirkabir University of Technology.

Zarif has said repeatedly that Iran’s military power is for deterrence.

In a meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in March, Zarif said during Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran in the 1980s foreigners refused to sell weapons to Iran to defend itself.

“Iran has learned from the bitter experience of the imposed war that it must rely on its deterrence power to defend the people,” the chief diplomat noted at the time.

During the war the Saddam army rained down missiles on Iranian cities. The Saddam army also gassed Iranian soldiers and civilians. 

NA/PA