MNA – Former Iraian defense minister says that Westerners are keeping grudge against the Islamic Republic of Iran since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and naturally they are after imposing limits on Iran’s missile program.

“Although we have the capability to make missiles of different ranges with high destructive power and high precision, we have kept our missiles at the range that would cover our speculated threats,” said Iranian former Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan.

The Iranian Leader’s senior aide on defense issues made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Mehr News Agency.

Regional developmetns, Iran’s defense program and missile system, and the experience garnered in areas of military and security by Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan were the areas touched upon during the interview.

When asked to comment about the recent riots in some major cities of Iran, Mr. Dehghan highlighted that the reality is that many Iranian people are suffering from economic problems and the enemies of the Revolution and anti-Revolutionary forces toke advantage of this fact to create anarchy inside Iran.

He asserted that many lessons should be learned from the recent riots. He also thanked police and voluntary forces for not letting the protests turn into violence.

“Our people have proved that they have no problem with the Leader or the Establishment but they have some legitimate demands which are expected to be met by officials,” noted the Iranian official.

“But in my opinion part of the problem is caused by our enemies, especially US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia which are after tapping from the current situation,” asserted the Iranian former defense minister.

“It is interesting that Mr. Trump, who has explicitly accused the Iranians nation of being terrorist, today is talking about defending the rights of the Iranians,” affirmed Mr. Dehghan.

When the former defense minister was asked about the second anniversary of the JCPOA in practice, and the pressure posed by westerners against Iran to limit its missile program, Mr. Dehghan opined that the problems goes back to the Revolution of 1979.

“The issue which should be heeded to by intellectuals and scholars is that the imperialist system has been keeping its animosity towards Iran since the early days of the victory of the Islamic Revolution and will keep this animosity in the future as long as Iran preserve its principled positions,” he opined.

“To reach their goals, they are concentrating their efforts to prevent the formation of elements of power in our country,” he added.

“Elements of power are diverse but one of them is technique or technology and the Westerners have tried from the very beginning to limit our access to knowledge and they have done a great job in this area,” highlighted the Leader’s aide.

“The second issue is economy and the atmosphere to have interaction with the world. Economic war and Iranophobia are the two areas seriously followed by the enemies of the Revolution,” noted the Iranian official.

“They are after picturing Iran as the main reason of instability in the region and the world, and assuredly our defensive power as a deterrent element which guarantees the security of the country is one of the thing the westerners are seriously after limiting,” he highlighted.