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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected claims by US President Donald Trump’s that the US-Israeli attacks were “preemptive” and said it was just an attempt to justify the illegitimate war.
“The claim that Iran was planning on attacking the US or US forces, whether preventively or preemptively, is a sheer and utter lie” and an attempt to justify the war on Iran which is “a misadventure engineered by Israel and paid for by ordinary Americans,” Araghchi said in a post on X.
Trump repeated his claims in a press conference on Monday in response to a question about the rationale of the war. He also declared that if the US had not attacked Iran it was 100% sure that Iran would have attacked the US “within a week”.
Israel and the US launched a series of joint air strikes in Tehran and other parts of the country on February 28 amidst an ongoing negotiation over Iran’s nuclear program. They claimed there was an imminent threat from Iran and it was a “preemptive strike”. Attacks against Iran have continued since that day and have already taken the lives of over 1,200 people including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and over 100 school girls.
Iran has issued a forceful response to US-Israeli strikes and launched attacks on numerous US bases in the neighboring Gulf and Arab countries and against Israel. Scores of Israeli citizens and US soldiers have also been killed and injured in Iran’s retaliatory strikes. Iran has also blocked the Strait of Hormuz, effectively stopping the supply of a quarter of the world’s energy needs, provoking a rise in global oil prices and shortages of cooking gas in several countries in Asia mostly dependent on imports from West Asia.
Meanwhile, Israel has intensified attacks against Lebanon with air strikes and a partial ground invasion. Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed over 600 people since March 2 and displaced nearly 800,000 others.
Deliberate targeting of vital infrastructure
During a phone conversation with UN Secretary General António Guterres on Wednesday, Araghchi also reiterated Iran’s right to self defense under international law, underlining it had already warned all its neighbors and other concerned parties that it will target US bases and Israeli positions in the region if attacked first, Mehr News Agency reported.
Iran noted that during the war so far, Israel and the US have targeted various civilian centers including schools, hospitals, and historical monuments in the country, in complete violation of international law and human rights. Iranian oil depots near Tehran were also bombed by Israeli-US forces on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) said that at least 20,000 civilian sites have been attacked by the US-Israeli air strikes since February 28, including 77 medical centers, 65 educational institutions, and 16 facilities to provide war relief run by the IRCS itself.
Araghchi demanded the UN immediately intervene to condemn Israeli-US violations of international law and safeguard international peace and security, as is its duty. He claimed that if it fails to do so its credibility will further be damaged.
The attacks on civilian infrastructure and homes has led to a large number of deaths, including the killing of over 160 girls in an attack on a school in Minab on the first day of the war. Despite evidence presented, Trump has attempted to deny the US involvement in the killing of the school girls.
Read more: “We will not negotiate with the US,” says Iran’s national security council chief
Iranian ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, confirmed on Monday that four Iranian diplomats were killed in an Israeli attack on a Beirut hotel last week.
Peace for all or for none, says Iran
On Wednesday, Iran warned of attacks on economic centers and banks affiliated with the US and Israel in the region after one of its banks were bombed during US and Israeli attacks.
Claiming the country’s armed forces have now launched the 37th wave of missiles and drones against Israel and US assets in retaliation to their strikes (Operation True Promise 4), the Islamic Revolutionary Guards’ Corp (IRGC) said on Tuesday that security and stability in the region is “either for everyone or for no one.”
The “unconventional, illegitimate and illegal attempts by the US-Israeli aggressors to attack Iran’s infrastructure and massacre civilians will not go unanswered,” the IRGC claimed.
Meanwhile, no serious attempts to end the war have materialized thus far amidst threats and counterthreats issued by US President Trump and Iranian officials.
Responding to a threat of further escalation in attacks by Trump on Monday over the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said on Tuesday that Iran will not let ships pass through the strait until the war ends.
The “Strait of Hormuz will either be a strait of peace and prosperity for all or will be a strait of defeat and suffering for warmongers,” Larijani said in a post on X.
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