Iran FM: Gulf strikes are retaliation for US-Israeli attacks
Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Aragchi, in a statement to CBS News, said that the country’s strikes on Gulf nations were in response to US forces using their bases in the region, reports Middle East Eye and agencies on March 15th.
Aragchi emphasised that the strikes on neighbouring Gulf countries were in response to the US using their military bases on these countries’ territories to launch strikes into Iran. “These are the countries that have given their soil to American forces to attack us.”
“So what can we do? We just sit and watch that American forces are attacking us from their soil?… We are only targeting American assets, American installations and American military bases. Everything belongs to Americans.”
After US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth asserted that Iran’s leaders were hiding like “rats”, Aragchi joined the other ministers, earlier this week, at the annual Al-Quds rally as a sign of defiance.
Hegseth made this comment on March 13th whilst speaking at a Pentagon press briefing after declaring that the US had taken out every facility Iran uses to build missiles.
He claimed, “Iran’s leadership is in no better shape — desperate and hiding — they have gone underground, cowering, that is what rats do.”
These comments came within days of Hegseth affirming US support for Israel’s war on Iran during a March 5th phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz.
Katz also has a history of inflammatory remarks towards Israel’s enemies, such as when he threatened to unleash Biblical plagues upon Yemen’s Houthi rebels after they launched missiles at Israel.
Araghchi highlighted that the Strait of Hormuz is not completely under blockade and that Iran has provided safe passage for vessels from other nations; the instability is due to US aggression.
He stated, “We provide them security to pass because we have not closed this strait. They are not coming themselves because of the insecurity that is there, because of the aggression by the US.”
He added that the Iranians have abandoned hope and that they “don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time.”
Middle East Eye and agencies, Mediaite, Maghrebi.org
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