Esmail Baghai, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, talks about his country’s response to the US and Israeli airstrikes.
Emily Kwong, Host:
The Iranian government is responding to the US and Israel with strikes of their own and says they intend to continue fighting.
Esmail Baghai: This is an unjust war imposed on our nation and we have no choice but to fight against this injustice.
Kwang: Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai. They say these military actions are unnecessary and unprovoked, and they come as the US and Iran are making progress in diplomatic talks on the nuclear issue. We reached him today in Tehran. He was there on Saturday morning when the attacks began.
Baghai: I was at my workplace, and you see, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located south of the capital, quite close to the Supreme Leader’s compound, where more than 28 missiles were attacked. And the compound is now razed to the ground. Many people lost their lives and were assassinated, including our supreme leader. He was not just a political leader. He was a high-ranking religious jurist outside of Iran, with tens of millions of followers throughout the region.
Kwong: Who is leading the country now?
Baghai: Right now, as per our constitution, we have an Interim Council consisting of the Head of Judiciary, the President and one representative of the Council of Experts. A council of experts must elect a new Supreme Leader. We hope it will be completed in the next few days. I think so.
Kwang: Iran saw widespread protests earlier this year and the government killed thousands of its own citizens. Do those in leadership now have the support of the Iranian people?
Baghai: Every society has such protests. These protests began peacefully. We respect peaceful assemblies. The first 10 days of these peaceful protests were peaceful. But from January 8 to 10, the situation changed dramatically when gunmen appeared inside the peaceful protests and started shooting at the protesters and the police. More than 200 police officers and security personnel were killed. Some of them were beheaded and burned alive. Three thousand one hundred and seventy people were killed and more than 2,400 of them we called martyrs.
Kwang: Yes. That is, the death toll is estimated to be significantly higher, i.e., tens of thousands of people.
Baghai: Not so. I’m telling you – it really isn’t. This is part of the disinformation campaign because if you remember, I mean, in the early days of these protests…
Kwang: And…
BAGHAI: …there was a message from the President of the United States that if the number of killings increased, I would come and help the people. That’s motivation,…
Kwang: The…
Baghai: …because some gunmen started killing protesters…
Kwang: Calls…
BAGHAEI: … respectively, simply to increase the number.
Kwang: Yes. We don’t – the calls in the streets, though, are for regime change, and now you’ve called for President Trump’s administration to…
Baghai: It was not.
Kwong: …Change.
Baghai: It was not. It wasn’t there. It was out of financial distress. A major part of these economic problems is coming from United States sanctions. For the last five years we have been subjected to these brutal restrictions.
Kwong: Sanctions from the United States are very aggressive, for sure. But I want to know, do you believe that the combination of President Trump calling for regime change and Israel and some Iranians opposing the regime can hold the leadership of Iran?
Baghai: Can you accept in your country a foreign country calling for change in your governance system? And by the way, Iranians have shown that when they face foreign aggression, foreign hegemony, they appear united and they fight for their freedom, for their freedom and for their dignity and sovereignty.
Kwang: Let’s talk about international law because you appealed to the United Nations that the attacks by the US and Israel were violations, and your response was self-defense. So how do you think the international community will react to what is happening to Iran?
Baghai: We were one of the founding members of the United Nations in 1945. And the main principle of the United Nations is to protect future generations from the scourge of war. So it is our fundamental right to call on the UN Security Council to do its responsibility under Article 39 of the UN Charter because what the United States and Israel are doing is an act of aggression against Iran. At the international level, unfortunately, we understand that realpolitik works. But we hope – and I think this is our legitimate expectation – to see the help of the United Nations system because otherwise, you cannot talk about collective security. You cannot talk about international law. You cannot talk about a general system.
The first missiles they fired at Iran hit a primary school in the southern Iranian city of Minab. So far more than 158 innocent girls have become victims. Some of them are still in ruins. Today they hit hospitals in the center of Tehran. It is an unprovoked, unwarranted act of aggression.
Kwong: It’s incredibly hard to bear. Violence is growing. We learned that at least three Americans were killed in this battle. What was your reaction to that news?
Baghai: I have said many times that we have no problem with the American people. And we believe that this is not their war. This is the US administration’s war of choice. We were talking to Americans. We were in the middle of negotiations, and if – I refer you to the words of the Omani mediator. On Friday, he gave an interview to a US mainstream media outlet. He said that the deal has been reached. You know we were supposed to meet with the American delegation in Vienna yesterday to talk about the technicalities of a possible agreement. So we didn’t start this war.
Kwang: That’s Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai. Thanks so much for talking to us.
Baghai: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Kwang: And we should note that after this conversation, a senior White House official told NPR that President Trump wanted to talk to a potential new leadership in Iran. The White House official said the US attack would continue unabated for now.
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. For more information visit our Website Terms of Use and Permissions pages at www.npr.org.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or accommodate updates to the audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The official record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
