Iran ready for both talks and war – envoy
Iran is not seeking war, but it is ready to keep fighting, Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali, has told RT in an exclusive interview, arguing that the Islamic Republic has never been the side to abandon diplomacy despite repeated stabs in the back.
“The general policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is that if the other side is willing to negotiate, we will negotiate. If they want war, we will fight,” Jalali told RT on Thursday.
The ambassador stressed that Tehran has never “betrayed” or left the negotiating table, which is exactly what Washington did in February and earlier under US President Donald Trump.
“In the record of the US President, there was the tearing up of the JCPOA, and there have been two attacks against us while talks were ongoing,” he said.
“If they want to continue this trend, it is natural that the Islamic Republic of Iran will fight. But if they intend to negotiate, we are ready for systematic negotiations with strong guarantees to establish lasting peace and to preserve and protect Iran’s rights and compensate for our losses,” he added.
Earlier this week, Trump announced that he was extending the ceasefire with Iran indefinitely while waiting for what he called a “unified response” to his deal from Tehran, portraying the leadership of the Islamic Republic as fractured and badly weakened.
Tehran has pushed back hard on that narrative. In a coordinated show of unity on Thursday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf published near-identical statements declaring that there are no “hardliners” or “moderates” in Iran, only “Iranians and revolutionaries.” They vowed that the country’s “ironclad unity” would make the aggressor regret its actions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi struck the same note, saying the country's state institutions continue to act with “unity, purpose, and discipline,” and that “the battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war.”
The standoff continues around the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has tightened its grip on global shipping and the US has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, intercepting or turning away at least 30 vessels.
Trump further raised the stakes on Thursday by saying he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boats allegedly laying mines in the waterway. Tehran considers the blockade a direct breach of the ceasefire and has argued that any talks are pointless as long as it remains in place.
