TEHRAN - President Ebrahim Raisi asserted in a televised interview on Tuesday night that “Operation True Promise” was a clear manifestation of “revolutionary rationality” and a beautiful manifestation of the cooperation of the battlefield and diplomacy.

The president was referring to Iran’s missile and drone attacks on Israel’s military sites on April 14 in response to the Zionist regime’s April 1 attack on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria, in which seven Iranian military advisors were assassinated.

On the implementation of the government’s promises, he also said, “Of course, the dimensions and consequences of Operation True Promise should be examined in specialized meetings, but this operation was the crystallization of the feeling of ‘national pride,’ which became one of the turning points of consensus-building, and all people, currents, and thinkers of all tastes praised it,” according to the president’s official website.

The president also described Israel’s acts of war in the Gaza Strip as instances of genocide, infanticide and crimes against humanity.

He also stated that despite seven months of continuous crimes by the Zionist regime in Gaza today all experts believe that the winners of this battle are the resilient people of Palestine and the losers are the Zionist regime and its supporters.

The president went on to call the continuation of the crimes in Gaza despite the acceptance of a ceasefire by Hamas a “shame and humiliation” for the Zionist regime and its supporters.

“Today, the cry for justice is heard not only in universities in the Western world, but everywhere in the world, and it is these failures that have caused the Zionist regime to despair, and one of the manifestations of this despair was the attack on the consular building of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus, in violation of all international regulations and frameworks.”

The president said Operation True Promise highlighted the need to focus on deterrence, noting, “We have always declared that it is this ‘rational revolutionary discourse’ that has worked…, not a begging diplomacy.”

Regarding his analysis on whether the retaliatory attack against Israel will prevent the emergence of other problems, the president said, “My opinion is that this operation was a display of authority and showed that Iran is in a position of authority and will show its effects in economic, social and other fields.”

He continued, “This operation showed that if the right decision is made at the right time and is implemented correctly, it can have very influential effects. The proof of this claim was this proud operation, whose appropriate decision-making, timely and correct implementation was able to create a consensus among all factions and all our fighters praised us.”

In response to a question whether the solutions to the country’s problems are missiles, negotiations, or both, the president said, “We have emphasized many times that the Islamic Republic of Iran warmly shakes the hands of all countries that seek friendly relations with us, but some countries have always promoted Iranophobia in the past 45 years.”

He also pointed out that problems can sometimes can be solved with missiles and other times with negotiations.

Referring to his recent meeting with the president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG) in which he acknowledged the importance of the timely presence of General Qassem Soleimani and the Islamic Republic’s support to Iraq and the Kurdistan region in the face of the lightening Daesh attack, Raisi said, “The people of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan will never forget Iran’s support to them against the enemy and these effects are also noticeable in other countries of the region.”

He also said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has confirmed the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear activities 15 times but these reports have gone unheeded, asking, “So can only negotiations solve the problem? No. Negotiations can be done, and where necessary, rockets can be used; that is, in fact, it can be said that rockets will be answered with rockets.”

In response to a question about the issue of chastity and hijab in society and the government’s plans to respond to people’s concerns in this regard, the president clarified, “Throughout history, the women of our land have lived a chaste life, which has always been famous and fortunately, it has been the same until today.”

Raisi continued by stating that the issue of chastity and hijab is both a sharia and legal duty. “Some may not adhere to sharia issues, but adherence to the law is definitely necessary and the government's efforts in this field are also to implement the law.”

At the end of his address, Raisi said, “We are loyal to our promise, we will definitely be a government that is true to its promises. You can be sure that your needs and problems are our problem and will be followed up by the government until they are resolved.”

He called national unity the key to the success and continuity of the country’s progress and added, “As the Iranian nation has made the enemy desperate with its presence, it will definitely defeat the enemy more than ever with its presence, courage, standing and resistance.”