Iran (IMNA) - Speaking to China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Tianjin, China—where he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting on Tuesday—Araghchi emphasized that the recent military actions by Israel constituted "unprovoked aggression" rather than simply a conflict.
"It is not a conflict. It is an act of aggression, unprovoked aggression by Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Araghchi. He added, “We had no way but to exercise our right of self-defense. So, we defended our country. We defended it in a very courageous way and forced the aggressors to stop the aggression and ask for an unconditional ceasefire, which was accepted by us."
The Iranian foreign minister expressed skepticism over Israel’s commitment to the ceasefire, describing it as “fragile” due to Israel’s history of not honoring such agreements. "The ceasefire is, of course, fragile and the reason is obvious: no ceasefire by the (Israeli) regime is reliable because the regime has a very bad record on that,” he said.
Araghchi reiterated that Iran is “very careful and fully prepared if the ceasefire is broken, but this is not our wish. That was not our wish from the beginning. We did not want this war, but we were ready for that.”
He concluded by saying that while Iran does not desire a continuation of hostilities, the nation stands ready to respond should aggression resume.
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