TEHRAN – Iran’s defensive capabilities and its missile power will never be subject to negotiations, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the deputy army chief for coordination affairs, said on Sunday.

“We declare explicitly that Iran’s defense and missile power is absolutely non-negotiable,” Sayyari told Tasnim news agency.

He said nobody would ever bargain over Tehran’s defense capabilities.

On Europe’s willingness to hold new rounds of talks with Iran with the aim of completing the 2015 nuclear deal, the admiral said, “Europeans may have many wishes and dreams, but we won’t let them achieve the dream of [holding] missile talks with Iran.”

He pointed to the recent remarks by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei about the impossibility of talks on Iran’s defense and missile capabilities, saying the Leader’s remarks were crystal clear and described negotiations with the U.S. as a lethal poison.

In comments last month, Ayatollah Khamenei categorically dismissed the notion of talks with the U.S., saying, “Negotiation is poison. As long as the U.S. continues to be what it is now - as Imam once said, ‘as long as he does not act like a decent human being’: this is how he worded it - our negotiation with the U.S. is poison, even more so with the current administration.”

Ayatollah Khamenei has reiterated on various occasions that Iran’s defense capabilities and power are not subject to negotiations.

“We will have no bargaining and dealing with the enemy over the country’s means of defense and over whatever provides or supports the national power,” the Leader said in October 2017.

The adversaries are opposed to the enhancement of Iran’s power in the region and beyond, because such power constitutes the “strategic depth of the Islamic establishment,” the Leader added.

MH/PA