Amid the ongoing Middle East crisis, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, rejected calls for a ceasefire, telling NBC News’ Meet the Press that Iran must “continue fighting for the sake of our people.”
According to the report, Iranian FM argued that Israel and the U.S. had already violated the ceasefire that ended last year’s 12-day conflict, saying, “And now you want to ask for a ceasefire again? This doesn’t work like this.”
But before Tehran might even consider a ceasefire, Abbas Araghch said “they have to explain why they started this aggression.” Araghch did not specify about whom he was speaking.
Araghchi also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there should be a permanent end of the war and unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security.”
He says the war “was imposed on us” by the United States and Israel, and that “what we are doing is legal acts of self-defense and we have every right to do that.”
Iran’s attacks on neighbouring Gulf countries
He defended Iran’s attacks on neighbouring Gulf countries, explaining that the strikes were targeted at U.S. military bases in the region, since Iranian missiles do not have the range to reach the United States.
“It is Americans who started this war against us, attacking us, and we are defending ourselves. So it is obvious that our missiles cannot reach the US soil,” Araghchi said.
“What we can do is to attack American bases and American installations around us, which are unfortunately in the so