Raeisi: Iranians victorious amid frequent US hostilities

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi referred to decades of hostile acts by the United States against the Iranian nation and noted that Iran has been the one emerging victorious in the face of these hostilities.

The US enmity with the Iranian nation goes back not to four but to seven decades ago, the president said Thursday in a gathering of the people of Semnan, a city 180 kilometers east of Tehran, held to commemorate the National Day of the Fight against Global Arrogance.

In the first three decades, the Americans managed to plunder the Iranian people’s assets with coups and support from puppet rulers, Raeisi said.

“However, over the past 43 years after the victory of the revolution, the victor in this (battle against) the endless enmities of the Americans has been the Iranian nation.”

He also hailed a recent IRGC Navy confrontation with the US forces in the Sea of Oman, and described the Americans’ act of piracy as abominable.

During the episode in late October, a footage of which was released on Wednesday, American forces confiscated a tanker that was carrying a cargo of Iranian oil in the strategic Sea of Oman, transferring its consignment of crude to another vessel.

The IRGC Navy then staged a maritime operation against the second vessel, landing its helicopters on its deck and navigating the ship towards Iranian waters.

A statement issued by the IRGC's public relations office, said the US forces started pursuing the second vessel using several helicopters and warships but stopped short of capturing it.

Elsewhere in his remarks in Semnan on Thursday, Raeisi referred to the negotiations on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal and said Iran pursues talks that focus on results.

He said Iran will not leave the negotiating table but will remain steadfast against excessive demands that would undermine the Iranian nation’s interests.

“We will in no way give up (efforts to ensure the fulfillment of) the Iranian nation’s rightful demand about the removal of the unjust sanctions,” he went on to say.

On Wednesday, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Baqeri said Iran and the EU have agreed to resume talks on the revival of the 2015 nuclear deal and lifting of the illegal sanctions against Tehran in late November.

“In a phone call with (the European Union’s deputy foreign policy chief) Enrique Mora, we agreed to start the negotiations aiming at removal of unlawful & inhumane sanctions on 29 November in Vienna,” Baqeri, who is Iran’s chief negotiator in the talks, said in a tweet.