Iran's Foreign Minister accuses the U.S. of "betraying diplomacy" and calculates its response

Ankara (EFE).- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in Istanbul that the U.S. has "betrayed diplomacy" and "crossed all red lines" by attacking three nuclear facilities in his country, which constitutes an "unforgivable violation of international law."

«Attacking a nuclear facility is an unforgivable violation of international law and must be condemned», said Araqchí during a press conference in Istanbul, where he is participating in the 51st summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), before traveling this afternoon to Russia. “I am going to travel to Moscow this afternoon and have a meeting with (Russian President, Vladimir) Putin tomorrow morning. Russia is a friend of Iran, we have a strategic alliance and we always consult each other. Also in the last three or four months, when we were negotiating with the United States, we have always informed our Russian friends about the progress, or lack of progress,” said Araqchi. He considered that "the door of diplomacy should always be open", but that "this is not the case now".

Legitimate self-defense

"My country has been attacked and we must respond in our legitimate right to self-defense and we will do this for as long as necessary," added the minister, although when asked what that response might be, he simply replied: "We have a variety of options; that's all." "We are not in a situation now to decide how to resume diplomacy and with whom. Let's wait and see what our reaction will be, and when it's over we will decide how to return to diplomacy," he added. He recalled that Iran "was in the middle of diplomacy when Israel blew it up" and that it was also "in the middle of negotiations with the Europeans in Geneva, just two days ago, when the United States decided to blow them up". You may be interested in... Boric condemns US attack on Iran: “Having power does not authorize its use in violation of the rules” “We were engaged in diplomacy when the United States gave Israel the green light to attack our nuclear facilities. It thus showed that they are not men of diplomacy and that they only understand the language of force; this is unfortunate. The United States has no respect for the United Nations Charter, it has no respect for international law,” Araqchi insisted. «I don't know how much space is left for diplomacy. We are still assessing the damage, but not only has Iran been bombed, the Charter of the United Nations and the rule of law have been bombed,» he concluded. He nuanced that Tehran still maintains indirect contact with Washington through intermediaries such as Oman and other countries, "receiving messages through different channels" to which it responds through intermediaries "if necessary".

Damage to the facilities

The head of Iranian diplomacy did not want to go into details about what Tehran's response might be and acknowledged that he was also unaware of the extent of the damage caused to the nuclear facilities by the US attack. "The Islamic Republic of Iran calls on the Security Council to convene an emergency session to unequivocally condemn the criminal act of aggression by the United States against Iran," said Araqchi. He recalled that a meeting was held yesterday afternoon on the sidelines of the OIC summit with the ministers present and assured that "almost all are very concerned and are considering how to stop the Israeli aggression." The Iranian minister assured that this attack is a severe setback to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), of which Tehran is a part, as it has ceased to guarantee the possibility of developing atomic activities peacefully. "Iran is under attack by a nuclear superpower and a nuclear regime, being a country without nuclear weapons; this must be condemned or the entire non-proliferation system ceases to make sense," he said. He also criticized the statements of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said last Tuesday that Israel "does the dirty work for everyone" with its attacks on Iran, calling it "very unfortunate" and "a shame" that Germany "supports this dirty work and grants Israel the right to do it." Araqchi also accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its director general, the Argentinian Rafael Grossi, of "evident partiality in favor of warmongers" and of "paving the way for violence" for their criticisms of Tehran's non-compliance and lack of transparency regarding its atomic activities. A recent IAEA report highlighted that Iran had continued to accumulate uranium enriched to 60%, far from the purity level for civilian use (3%) and close to that for military use (90%), and continued to fail to answer numerous open questions about the nature of its nuclear program.

Iran on the Reactions of the EU and the United Kingdom

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi reminded the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, in response to requests for a return to the negotiating table, that they have not walked away and that it is Israel and the U.S. that have "destroyed" all diplomacy. «Last week, we were negotiating with the United States when Israel decided to destroy that diplomacy. This week, we held talks with the E3/EU when the United States decided to destroy that diplomacy», recalled Araqchi in a message on his X account, referring to the nuclear negotiations with Washington and the meeting he held on Friday in Geneva with the United Kingdom, Germany and France and the EU. In addition, Araqchi criticized that the United Kingdom and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs of the EU, Kaja Kallas, say that it is Iran that has to "return" to the negotiating table, and asks: "How can Iran return to something it never abandoned, much less destroyed?"