Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that his country needs to “continue fighting for the good of our people.”
The United States and Israel “are killing our people, they are killing girl students, you know, they are attacking hospitals,” he told moderator Kristen Welker.
He said Israel and the United States had already broken the ceasefire reached to end last year’s 12-day war, adding: “And now they want to call for a ceasefire again? It doesn’t work like that.”
“There needs to be a permanent end to the war,” Araghchi said. “Unless we come to that, I think we must continue to fight for the good of our people and our safety.”
On Friday, four sources told NBC News that Russia was providing intelligence to Iran about the location of US forces in the Middle East, including intelligence that could help Iran locate US warships.
When asked if Iran is receiving Russian support, Araghchi said that “cooperation between Iran and Russia is not something new, it is not a secret.” He did not say whether Russian intelligence was helping Iran locate US military assets.
“They are helping us in many different directions. I don’t have any detailed information,” he said.
In a separate interview on “Meet the Press,” United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz discussed reports that Russia is sharing intelligence with Iran and said he had “no doubt that President Trump will address the matter accordingly.”
When asked if he considered Russia to have entered the conflict, Waltz said, “We know that both Russia and Iran have had this symbiotic relationship.”
“If they are providing anything, it certainly hasn’t been very effective, because the US military is decimating Iran’s air force, air defenses, navy, ground forces, command and control,” Waltz said. “So whatever they’re providing, if anything, they haven’t proven to be very helpful.”
On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would no longer attack neighboring Gulf nations unless they facilitate US or Israeli attacks, and apologized to the region after Iranian attacks killed people in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
But Araghchi said Iran had not been “attacking our neighbors” intentionally.
“We are attacking American bases, American facilities, American assets, which unfortunately are located on our neighbors’ soils,” he said.
Araghchi added that Pezeshkian had apologized to the people of the region for “the inconvenience they have faced due to this aggression by the United States and the retaliation on our part.”
The Iranian minister also said that if the United States deploys ground troops in Iran, “we will have very brave soldiers who will be waiting for any enemy that enters our soil to fight with them, kill them and destroy them.”
President Donald Trump said last week that one of the reasons for launching the war was that Iran would soon have missiles capable of reaching the United States, but Araghchi said that was not true.
“This is, in fact, misinformation,” he said. “You know, we have the capability to produce missiles, but we have intentionally limited ourselves to less than 2,000 kilometers range because we don’t want anyone else in the world to feel like we are a threat.”
Iran’s Assembly of Experts elected a new supreme leader after the strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian state media, but Araghchi did not offer any insight into who would replace him.
“Nobody knows,” he said. “There are a lot of rumors out there. But you know, we have to wait for the Assembly of Experts to meet.”
Pressed by Trump’s comments that he wanted to participate in electing Iran’s next leader, Araghchi said Iran “will not allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs.”
“It is up to the Iranian people to choose their new leader,” he said. “They have already elected the Assembly of Experts and the Assembly of Experts will do the job.”
Trump said in a post Friday on Truth Social that the United States would not make any deal with Iran “except UNCONDITIONAL RENDER.”
When asked on “Meet the Press” what the president meant, Waltz said he would “let the president, as commander in chief, determine what that ultimately looks like.”
“We’re ahead of schedule and ultimately what he wants is more or less common sense,” Waltz said. “As he said, we have to have an Iranian government that no longer threatens the American people, our allies and the world, and that holds the world’s energy supplies hostage through its missiles and navy.”
