TEHRAN, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- A senior Iranian military official said on Saturday that Iran will "in no way" negotiate over its defense power and will increase it "by as much as needed," semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
"If today we have missiles, this is because we have understood that we need this weapon. If we have drones and have developed cutting-edge technologies in this field ... this is because we had understood the issue way sooner," Amir Hatami, military advisor for army affairs to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told a conference held in the capital Tehran.
The eight-year war with Iraq during 1980-1988 taught Iran that its defense power is non-negotiable, noted Hatami, also a former defense minister of Iran.
"We will increase it by as much as needed and will not talk about it with anybody and under any circumstances," he said.
Iran currently has "anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons that can decide the fate of a battle," the Iranian military official concluded. ■
