Iran’s Foreign Ministry Justifies Retaliatory Strikes, Slams US Betrayal | the news

Spokesman Esmail Baghai says Iran’s attacks on US targets across the region are legitimate defensive measures.

A spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Iran has the right to defend itself against Israeli and US attacks.

“In accordance with international law with the UN Charter, we have every right to defend ourselves with all force,” Esmail Baghai said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday.

The US and Israel launched a wave of attacks on Saturday in several Iranian cities, including Tehran, in what US President Donald Trump described as “major combat operations”.

At least 201 people were killed, according to Iranian media citing the Red Crescent.

Iran responded by firing missiles at Israeli and US military targets in several countries, including Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The country’s armed forces are “defending Iran’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity against these barbaric acts of aggression,” Baghai said.

The US-Israeli attacks come after the third round of indirect talks between the US and Iran on Iran’s nuclear program ended on Friday.

We were supposed to meet on Monday to talk about the technical aspects of any possible deal on the nuclear issue,” Baghey said. “And the Americans themselves have admitted that these talks have gone quite well. The mediator, (the) Omani Foreign Minister, qualified this round of talks as making significant progress.”

Baghai noted that the attack on Iran marked the second time in less than a year that diplomacy had stalled. Iran and the US engaged in several rounds of talks last year, when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran in June, which the United States briefly joined, even though Trump said he was committed to a diplomatic resolution.

“Initiating an act of aggression by the US against another member of the United Nations” threatens the international body, whose main pillar, “the UN Charter, is the provision on the use of force,” Baghai said.

“Therefore, I think that not only the security and peace of the region and the peace of Iran is at stake, but also the whole fabric of international law. And the normative system created by the Charter of the United Nations,” he said.

Friends of the area

Baghai defended Iran’s retaliatory strikes in several countries across the region.

“Under international law, any location, any location, any logistical support provided to an aggressor is (a) legitimate target for the victim state,” he said. “So, we are not attacking any country in the region. We are friendly with all the countries in the region. All we are doing is taking defensive measures.”

“We have proven that we trust our friends in the region,” Baghai said. “That’s why we try to join together with the countries of the region in the continuation of this diplomatic process. The problem is that the United States is waging a war of aggression at the expense of everyone, including the countries of the region.”