"Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, during a televised interview from Tehran on Tuesday, stated his country will respond 'firmly' to any outside aggression.  "When it comes to defending Iran, we will respond firmly to any aggression, however slight," he said. "Since they started, we fired our last missiles and told them: If you strike again, we will respond in kind. You started it. Our response must be decisive." Ghalibaf stressed that 'cycle of repeated war' against the Islamic Republic is not acceptable. "We do not seek war. We do not want to wage war or destabilise the region. In fact, we want to establish security in the region and prevent this from happening again," he concluded. The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Tehran responded with strikes on Israel and US assets in the region. The conflict soon widened to Israel and Hezbollah trading strikes across the border with Lebanon. According to the most recent figures, the Iranian side has reported over 1,400 dead, with 13 deaths of military personnel admitted by the US side and up to 15 on the Israeli side. The escalating conflict has sent global energy prices soaring and led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which handles 20 per cent of global oil traffic."