‘Slightest inclination to surrender will embolden’ US, says Iran’s supreme leader

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned Wednesday that the “slightest inclination to surrender” would embolden the US amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve tensions between Washington and Tehran. Such a position “will only encourage the arrogant enemy to seek more excesses and further wars and audacity,” Khamenei said in a statement carried by Iran’s state-run broadcaster IRIB. A renewed conflict “will take on much broader dimensions if the aggressions are repeated,” he said.

The statement marked the supreme leader’s first remarks since the US midterm elections, in which President Donald Trump’s Republican Party lost control of both chambers of Congress. It also came amid diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement between Washington and Tehran as tensions persist following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran in late February.