Rouhani warns war with Iran would be ‘mother of all wars’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Tuesday that war with Iran would be “the mother of all wars” amid escalating tensions with the U.S. and other countries. 

“Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, war with Iran is the mother of all wars,” he said at a Foreign Ministry speech that was broadcast on state TV, according to Reuters. 

The statement echoes comments Rouhani made in 2018, as reported by The Associated Press, citing the Iranian news agency ISNA. Rouhani said at the time that the U.S. should stop “playing with the lion’s tail.”

Rouhani also called for an end to U.S. sanctions on the country. {mosads}

He said that if the U.S. wants to negotiate with Iran, it needs to lift all sanctions on the country, particularly on oil exports, Reuters reported. 

The Iranian leader also commented on shipping tensions. Last month, Iran seized the British Stena Impero tanker near the Strait of Hormuz weeks after the British seized an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar. 

“A strait for a strait. It can’t be that the Strait of Hormuz is free for you and the Strait of Gibraltar is not free for us,” Rouhani said.

On Sunday, Iran said it seized an Iraqi tanker in the Persian Gulf. 

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. have been mounting since President Trump pulled out of an Obama-era nuclear deal last year. A nuclear monitor confirmed last month that Iran exceeded uranium enrichment levels agreed to in the deal.