Missile program meant for defense, not up for negotiation: FM spox
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Monday that the Islamic Republic’s defensive capabilities are solely developed to deter attacks against the country and are not up for negotiation.
Baqaei made the statement at his weekly press conference while addressing a question on renewed media campaigns in Israeli and pro-Israeli US outlets suggesting the possibility of a new act of military aggression against Iran under the pretext of its missile program.
The media campaigns hinted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would seek to persuade US President Donald Trump to launch an attack on Iran just as the one in June.
“The defensive capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are designed to deter aggressors from even contemplating an attack on Iran and are in no way subject to dialogue or bargaining,” Baqaei said.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman added that Iran has developed its missile program to defend its integrity.
Baqaei censured the “blatant hypocrisy and double standards” vis-à-vis Iran’s missile program, which is meant to portray it as a “threat,” adding that, at the same time, lethal weapons and even weapons of mass destruction are being funneled into the Israeli-occupied territories to be used in the regime's genocidal war in the Gaza Strip.
The spokesman underlined that Iran’s Armed Forces are well-equipped to defend the country when necessary.
“Therefore, regardless of these malicious media campaigns, the Iranian nation, the Armed Forces, and all branches of the government will continue their path with a focus on their duties,” he pointed out.
The Israeli regime launched an unprovoked war against Iran on June 13, assassinating a number of top military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians.
More than a week later, the United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia.
On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault.
‘No protocol for inspection of damaged nuclear facilities’
On cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Baqaei said there is no established protocol for inspections of damaged nuclear facilities, as such a situation has no precedent.
The spokesman said Iran at one point entered into talks with the agency to address the issue, resulting in a mutually signed understanding.
However, he added that Western parties once again obstructed the process by exploiting the 2015 nuclear agreement’s dispute resolution mechanism in New York.
The repetition of the issue, he said, strengthened suspicions that the IAEA director general was seeking political leverage from a matter that “is not truly an issue.”
Tehran refutes claims of involvement in Ukraine war
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson also debunked a statement by the European Council that has accused Iran of complicity in the Ukraine war, stressing that Tehran has neither interfered in the conflict nor changed its long-standing position in favor of dialogue.
Reacting to the European Council’s statement, Baqaei said at a press conference in Tehran on Monday that the allegation that Iran, Belarus, and North Korea have provided military assistance to Russia in the Ukraine war was nothing more than a repeated claim.
“This allegation is repetitive. In similar previous statements, the names of several countries, including China and Iran, were mentioned as parties that help Russia in this conflict,” Baqaei said.
The spokesman reiterated that since the very beginning of the Ukraine conflict, Iran has declared that the problems should be resolved through dialogue and that Tehran neither intervened in the war before nor is intervening now.
Baqaei emphasized that Iran-Russia relations are no way meant hostility toward other countries.
The European countries should look at their own behavior and consider why Europe’s security has been put at risk as a result of NATO’s hostile actions, he added, stressing that they must be held accountable for their conduct and stop the process of leveling accusations against others.