NEW DELHI, April 13. /TASS/. Iran is prepared to defend itself for several years in a confrontation with the United States, if necessary, the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in India, Abdul Majid Hakim Elahi, stated to reporters.
"As you know, we did not start this war; we are not its initiators. They [the US] imposed it on us, and we began to defend ourselves, and we are still ready to defend ourselves, even for two, three, five years," he stated.
"We are not going to compromise our dignity, submit, or hand over our country and our rights to the other side," he emphasized.
The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.
On April 11, Iran and the United States held several rounds of talks in Islamabad. As Tehran and Washington announced later, the parties failed to reach an agreement on a long-term settlement to the conflict due to a number of differences. Details of a possible new round of talks remain unknown. On April 12, Trump announced that the US and other countries’ navies would begin a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.