Iran’s president said that a demand by the United States for an unconditional surrender is a “dream that they should take to their grave."
President Masoud Pezeshkian made the statement in a prerecorded address aired by state television.
He also apologized for Iran’s attacks on regional countries, saying that Tehran would halt them and suggesting they were caused by miscommunication in the ranks.
He blamed the killing of the country's supreme leader and other top officials for what sounded like a loss of command and control in the armed forces in recent days.
The comments came as intense Iranian fire targeted the Gulf Arab states early Saturday as Israel and the United States kept up their airstrikes targeting the Islamic Republic.
There were repeated attacks Saturday morning on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Miscommunication among Iran’s ranks
Pezeshkian’s statement Saturday said the country’s three-man leadership council had been in touch with the armed forces over the attacks.
I think we should solve this through diplomacy - Masoud Pezeshkian
“I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf,” the president said. “From now on they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked from those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy.”
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been at the forefront of the war, answers only to the country’s supreme leader.
However, an Israeli airstrike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, at the start of the war Feb. 28.
