Iran's foreign minister accuses the United States of betraying diplomacy

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in Istanbul that the US had "betrayed diplomacy" and "crossed all red lines" by attacking three nuclear facilities in his country, which constituted an "unforgivable violation of international law."

"Attacking a nuclear facility is an unforgivable violation of international law and must be condemned," Araqchi said during a press conference in Istanbul, where he is participating in the 51st summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), before traveling to Russia this afternoon.

"I'm traveling 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, over 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," Araqchi said.

He considered that "the door to diplomacy should always be open," but that "this is not the case now."

"My country has been attacked, and we must respond in our legitimate right to self-defense, and we will do so for as long as it takes," the minister added. When asked what that response might be, he simply replied: "We have a variety of options; that's all."

"We're not in a position now to decide how to resume diplomacy and with whom . Let's wait and see what our reaction will be, and when that's over, we'll 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."

"We were engaged in diplomacy when the United States gave Israel the green light to attack our nuclear facilities. This showed that they are not diplomatic men and that they only understand the language of force; this is unfortunate. The United States has no respect for the United Nations Charter, no respect for international law," Araqchí insisted.

"I don't know how much room there is for diplomacy. We're still assessing the damage, but it's not just Iran that's been bombed; the UN Charter and the rule of law have been bombed," he concluded.

He clarified that Tehran still maintains indirect contact with Washington through intermediaries such as Oman and other countries, "receiving messages through various channels" to which it responds through intermediaries "if necessary."

Iran's top diplomat declined to elaborate on Tehran's possible response and acknowledged that he was also unaware of the extent of the damage caused to 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," Araqchi said.

He recalled that a meeting with the ministers present was held yesterday afternoon on the sidelines of the OIC summit and stated that "almost all of them are very concerned and are considering how to stop the Israeli aggression."

The Iranian minister asserted that this attack represents a serious setback for the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Tehran is a party, as it no longer guarantees the possibility of peaceful nuclear activities.

"Iran is under attack from a nuclear superpower and a nuclear regime, even though it is a country without nuclear weapons; this must be condemned, or the entire nonproliferation system becomes meaningless," he said.

He also criticized statements by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said last Tuesday that Israel "does everyone's dirty work" with its attacks on Iran, calling it "very unfortunate" and "a disgrace" that Germany "supports this dirty work and grants Israel the right to do it."

Araqchí also accused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its director general, Argentine Rafael Grossi, of "obvious bias in favor of the warmongers" and of "paving the way for violence" through their criticism of Tehran's non-compliance and lack of transparency regarding its atomic activities.

A recent IAEA report highlighted that Iran had continued to accumulate 60% enriched uranium, 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. EFE