Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the United States to end its military intervention in the region, saying such a withdrawal will both help restore regional security and serve Washington’s own interests, reports PressTV.

The “intolerable” insecurity currently afflicting the region menaces Asia, Europe, and even America itself as it can lead to all sorts of incidents, Rouhani told the cabinet session on Wednesday. “Restore this security. We want you to leave the region… not by means of war, but by taking the wise move [to do so],” he said. “You [yourself] will stand to benefit from this. Go down the path that benefits the region and the entire world,” the president added.

He also touched on the Islamic Republic’s recent strikes against US bases in western and northern Iraq, which came in retaliation for the US assassination of revered Iranian commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, among others, in Baghdad on January 3.

“General Soleimani’s martyrdom will not go unanswered. The military response was given,” he said, noting that the strikes that hit the US’s Ain al-Assad Airbase in Iraq’s Anbar Province showed that “we do not back down in the face of the US and will surely respond to their crime.”