Foreign Minister Araghchi Says Iran Does Not Want War, But Is Ready If Attacked

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday said Iran does not want war with Israel or the United States, but is ready to fight back if attacked again.

Speaking in Beirut, Lebanon, Foreign Minister Araghchi told reporters that Iran was also ready to negotiate with the US on its nuclear program, as long as the talks were based on mutual respect and not "dictated" by Washington.

His comments come amid concerns that close US ally Israel will again target Iran as it did during a 12-day war in June, in which Israel killed senior military officials and nuclear scientists, while the US bombed Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.

"America and Israel have tested their attacks on Iran and these attacks and strategies have suffered a major failure," Foreign Minister Araghchi said at the start of his two-day visit to Lebanon, as reported by Al Arabiya from The Associated Press (8/1).

"If they repeat it, they will face the same result," he continued.

"We are ready for any option. We do not want war but we are ready to face it," Foreign Minister Araghchi said.

Regarding Iran's nuclear program, US President Donald Trump re-imposed a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran in February in an effort to block the country's nuclear weapons development.

The campaign included a US-led attack on three key Iranian uranium enrichment facilities in June.

Foreign Minister Araghchi said Tehran was ready to negotiate, adding: "But I say that negotiations should be based on mutual respect and common interests."

"We believe that once America reaches an agreement that constructive and positive negotiations, not dictatorial orders, are the framework of work, then that is when the results of the negotiations will bear fruit," he said.

Iran is known to have enriched uranium to 60 percent purity - a technical step short of the level of uranium for nuclear weapons - after President Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

Iran itself has long said its atomic program is peaceful, although the West and the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.

Last month, President Trump warned Iran that Washington could carry out further military strikes if the country tried to rebuild its nuclear program, while holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.