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Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the current situation in Iran and answered questions from One to One reporter Amna Nawaz, including whether the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s Supreme Leader was a message of continuity of his father’s leadership, and of continued defiance to the US and Israel, which Araghchi agreed with, saying he thought it was a correct evaluation and it showed Iran’s continuity and some sort of stability at the same time.
“Again, after three rounds of negotiation, and after the American team in the negotiation said itself we made big progress, still, they decided to attack us – I don’t think talking with Americans anymore would be on our agenda anymore.
“They tried to achieve some of their goals, but they failed – they thought that in a matter of two or three days, they could go for a regime change, they could go for a rapid, clean victory, but they failed, so I believe that’s an option.
“Plan A was a failure, and now they are trying other plans, but all of them have failed as well.
“I don’t think they have any realistic endgame in mind, because we are seeing some sort of chaos in their sayings and actions, they have just started to attack us blindly.
“Today, they attacked residential areas, they attacked hospitals, they attacked schools, and they entered into attacking our infrastructure, which was a very dangerous move, and as a result, you can see the oil prices everywhere in the world.
“I don’t see any reasonable goal that they are following – they failed to achieve their goals at the beginning and now after 10 days, I think they are aimless.
“The oil production and transportation of oil have been slowed down or stopped, not because of us, but because of the attacks and aggression made by Israelis and Americans against us.
“They have made the tankers – the ships – scared to pass through the Strait of Hormuz – we have not closed that strait, we are not preventing them from navigating that strait, but this week is the result of the aggression by Israelis and Americans, which has made the whole region insecure, unstable, and the consequences are huge for not only us but for the whole region and now for the international community.”
Talking about the schoolgirls that were killed on the first day, Araghchi said: “I think all the US media and different sources from American intelligence and American media, everybody has admitted that this was done by an American missile – there is footage of that.
“The videos are analysed by neutral sources, and it is now a consensus that the attack was made by the United States, and they are in charge of the killing of 168 schoolgirls who were absolutely innocent – they sat in their classrooms, and all of a sudden, they were killed by the American military.”
Araghchi also spoke about the regional impact of the Iranian drone and missile attacks on neighbouring countries hosting US bases: “This is not our war, this is not our choice, this war was imposed upon us – we are under aggression, and we are defending ourselves.
“They cannot accuse us for things which happened on the other side – they should accuse those who started this war, and I think they should be held responsible for any damage inside Iran and in the region because everything was started by the United States and Israel.
“They have not been able to stop firing missiles against themselves – so the firing continues – we are well prepared to continue attacking them without missiles as long as needed and as long as it takes.”
