Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has echoed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, stressing that Tehran’s ballistic missile programme has never been part of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

“I would like to confirm one fact: our missile programme was not included in the MoU, as you said, and it shall not be included in the MoU,” Pezeshkian says at a joint press conference with the premier.

“I would like to say that if it was not for Iran’s missile capabilities, our country would have been plundered, destroyed and ploughed by the US regime and the Zionist regime (Israel), like what Israelis did in Gaza.”

Pezeshkian emphasises that Tehran will “never compromise on our missile programme and capabilities and this shall never be part of any agreement between Iran and any other party”.