Iran’s attacks on US bases ‘legitimate’ response to source of aggression: Araghchi

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran is determined to defend its sovereignty and the security of its people, noting that its strikes on US military bases in the region “are a legitimate response” to the source of the ongoing US-Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic.

Speaking during a Monday phone call with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Araghchi said that the US initiated a war against Iran for the second time in violation of international law, which came while both sides were engaged in indirect negotiations that showed positive progress.

Noting that hundreds of civilians have been killed in the strikes so far, Araghchi stressed that the Iranian armed forces will strongly defend Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the security of the people.

He also referred to the killing of Iranian children in the aggression, including 171 girls who were killed in an attack on an elementary school in Minab, emphasizing the responsibility of the international community to firmly condemn the US-Israeli aggression and the killing of Iranian civilians.

Araghchi asserted that US actions had crossed Iran’s “red line,” and the Islamic Republic would defend itself “with all its might.”

He reiterated that Iran has no hostility towards the Persian Gulf Arab countries, emphasizing that strikes on US bases located in some Persian Gulf countries “should not be considered as an Iranian attack on these countries.”

Iran’s top diplomat added that these operations are a “legitimate response to the source and origin of the aggression.”

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Iran

In response, the Chinese foreign Minister offered condolences on the martyrdom of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in a terrorist US-Israeli strike on Tehran.

Yi also expressed support for Iran in safeguarding its sovereignty, security, territorial integrity and national dignity. He stated that Beijing urges the United States and Israel to “immediately cease” their aggression on Iran, avoid further escalation of tensions, and prevent the conflict from spreading across West Asia.

The US and Israel started a fresh round of aerial aggression against Iran on Saturday, some eight months after they carried out unprovoked attacks on the country.

The aggression was launched as Tehran and Washington had held three rounds of indirect negotiations in the Omani capital of Muscat and the Swiss city of Geneva and planned to open technical talks in Vienna, Austria.

Iran began to swiftly retaliate against the strikes by launching barrages of missile and drone attacks on the Israeli-occupied territories as well as on US bases in regional countries.

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