Iran president says Trump aiming to bring country ‘to its knees’

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused his US counterpart Donald Trump of seeking to bring Iran “to its knees” on Monday as the country marked the 46th anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

Starting in the morning, Iranians began gathering in public spaces across the country, accompanied by pop songs and patriotic ballads, to celebrate the 1979 establishment of the Islamic republic and the toppling of shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

In Tehran, they headed to the symbolic Azadi tower, whose name means “freedom” in Persian, and which is in a square formerly named in honour of the shah.

“Trump says, ‘we want to talk’, and… (then) he signs in a memorandum all the conspiracies to bring our revolution to its knees,” Pezeshkian told the crowd, referring to Trump’s reinstatement of sanctions against Tehran earlier this month.

“We are not looking for war,” he said, while adding that Iran “will never bow to foreigners”.

Chanting anti-American and anti-Israeli slogans, crowds formed Monday morning in the streets of Shiraz and Bandar Abbas in the south, Rasht in the north, Kermanshah and Sanandaj in the west, and the holy city of Mashhad in the east, according to images broadcast on television.

Attendees, many of them families, carried portraits of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the green, red and white flag of Iran, as well as the banners of Tehran-backed groups such as Hezbollah.

Saying the United States sought to weaken Iran by sowing “division”, Pezeshkian said: “If we join hands, we are capable of resolving all the country’s problems.”

During his first term, which ended in 2021, Trump had pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran, an approach he has restored since returning to office.

Signing the order instructing departments to design new sanctions on February 4, Trump voiced optimism for a “deal with Iran and everybody can live together”.

At the time, Trump warned that if he were assassinated by Iran, the country would be “obliterated”.

Iran’s 10-day celebrations marking the ouster of the shah start each year on January 31, the anniversary of the return to Tehran of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 from exile.

In recent days, Iranian officials had urged citizens to attend the festivities in large numbers after Trump’s sanctions announcement.