Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected portrayals of Iran as a security threat, describing his country as an ancient civilisation with a defensive record, Al Jazeera reports.

“Iran, by this very name, character, and identity, is one of the oldest continuous civilisations in human history,” he wrote in a letter addressed to Americans, and carried by state media outlet Press TV.

“Iran has never, in its modern history, chosen the path of aggression, expansion, colonialism, or domination .… Iran has never initiated a war. Yet it has resolutely and bravely repelled those who have attacked it.”

He argued that depictions of Iran as a danger serve external interests.

“Portraying Iran as a threat is neither consistent with historical reality nor with present-day observable facts. Such a perception is the product of political and economic whims of the powerful-the need to manufacture an enemy in order to justify pressure, maintain military dominance, sustain the arms industry, and control strategic markets.”