Iran’s foreign minister Sunday said Iran has no intention of meeting President Donald Trump's demand for "unconditonal surrender," warning that his country is prepared to “continue fighting” amid growing military action.
Speaking with NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press,” Abbas Araghchi also said the U.S. and Israel owe Iran an explanation for the joint attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader earlier this month.
“They have to explain why they started this aggression before we come to the point to even consider a ceasefire,” Araghchi said. “Of course, nobody wants to continue this war. This is not our war of our choice. This is imposed on us by the United States, by Israelis."
The Trump administration’s rationale for the war has repeatedly changed over the last week; at one point, Trump said Iran had missiles capable of reaching America. Araghchi on Sunday said the claim was “misinformation.” On Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt unveiled a list of four goals the administration hopes to achieve with Operation Epic Fury.
Trump on Friday vowed to continue military action until Iran issues an “unconditional surrender,” an echo of his demands to Tehran during the 12-day war last June — four days before the U.S. struck multiple Iranian nuclear sites.
Still, Araghchi said, the phrase didn’t work last year and it won’t work this time.
“We never gave up. We never surrendered,” Araghchi said. “We continue to resist as long as it takes. We continue to defend ourselves, and we are defending our territory, our people and our dignity, and our dignity is not for sale."
Despite accepting the ceasefire last year, Araghchi said it “didn’t bring about peace.” And this time, he said, is different.
“Now this year, they again started to attack us. They are killing our people. They are killing, you know, girl students,” he said, referring to reports that a strike in southern Iran killed more than 165 people at a girls’ school.
Though Leavitt this week said the Pentagon is “investigating” the strike on the school, Trump on Saturday forcefully asserted Iran was responsible for the attack.
But Araghchi vehemently denied Tehran’s forces are responsible for the strike. “It is our school. These are our students, our girls, and they are attacked by an American jet fighter and they have been killed. Why Iran is responsible?"
When Welker pressed Araghchi on what evidence he had that American forces were responsible for the attack, the foreign minister quickly clapped back, “If it was not U.S., then who else? Maybe Israelis. But it is obvious, who else is attacking us?”
It is unclear how long the war will last, though the White House has said it could be anywhere from five to six weeks. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Iran since fighting began, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.
Araghchi said when an end comes to the war, it must be a permanent end, instead of another intermission in the fighting.
"There should be a permanent end of the war, and unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security," he said.
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