Iranian FM blames Israel, US for regional destabilization

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told PBS NewsHour that he did not think that “the question of talking with Americans or negotiation with the Americans once again would be on the table,” in a Monday interview.

According to Araghchi, the US has soured the potential of future negotiations by repeatedly attacking in the middle of diplomatic talks – first last year in June, and then as the opening to Operation Epic Fury.

“This year, they tried to convince us that this time is different. They promised us that they don’t have any intention to attack us,” Araghchi said. “So I don’t think talking with Americans anymore would be on our agenda.”

Araghchi also denied that Iran was intentionally putting pressure on the US and Israel by targeting oil production in other nations in the region.

He claimed that oil tankers are “scared to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” but that “we are not preventing them from navigating in that strait.”

Instead, the minister shifted the blame onto the US and Israel’s aggression towards Iran, arguing that by attacking, they have destabilized the region.

“This is a war imposed on us,” he stated, “What we are doing is only defending ourselves. We are facing an act of aggression, which is absolutely illegal. And what we are doing is the act of self-defense, which is legal and legitimate.

“Well, we have already warned everybody in the region that if the US attacks us, since we cannot reach the American soil, we have to attack their bases in the region, their facilities, their installations, their assets. And as a result, the war would be spread into the whole region.

So these are the consequences, the consequence of the US aggression against us. We are not responsible for that.”