Full interview: Iranian foreign minister reacts to U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran

I'm going to interrupt you very briefly while you've been introducing Julie Sirkin. They're telling us that right now we have a guest from Iran. Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Arrachi, is joining us now from Tehran. Minister Arrachi, we appreciate your making time to speak to us right now. We have a series of questions. We know that you are one of the few in that country who have the access to communicate

outside of a country where there is a large blackout of communications at this time. First and foremost, our question to you, sir, is, can you give us a better understanding of the situation on the ground there, the impacts that have taken place? And separately, can you confirm to us that the Ayatollah and the president are both still

alive?

Well, thank you for having me. Well, the situation on the ground is quite, I cannot say normal, but the life is going on now everything is under control. And we almost in less than two hours, we were able to start retaliation by sending, by attacking, you know, American bases and some targets in Israel by our missiles. Almost all officials are safe and sound and alive. We may have lost one or two commanders, but that is not a big problem.

And we are actually managing it. We are handling the situation. And I was in contact with, you know, my colleagues in the Persian Gulf. And I explained for them that, you know, we have no intention to attack them, but we are actually attacking the American bases in the in the act of self-defense. We cannot just sit and watch. They are attacking us and we don't respond

simply because their bases are in a friendly neighbor country. So I explained for them and I hope that they understand this situation. Another point I have to mention is I don't know why the US administration insists to start a negotiation and then in the middle of negotiation attack the other party. Today happened exactly what last June happened. We were in the middle of negotiations

and it was interesting that this time we made a big progress. Last two days ago, on Thursday, we had a very good meeting in Geneva together with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. And we were able to address serious questions

related to Iran's nuclear program. We obviously have differences, but we resolved some of those differences, and we decided to continue in order to resolve the rest of questions. And we actually instructed the technical team to go to Vienna and have a meeting with the IAEA, so in order to find technical solution for the problems we are facing in the negotiation. And everybody was happy at the end of those negotiations.

As you saw, His Excellency Badr al-Ghussaidi, the foreign minister of Oman who is mediating between us, he concluded by posting a tweet saying that today we made significant progress. And before he posted his tweet, he consulted with both delegations and both were happy.

So I don't know why, while we were progressing in our talks and we had made good, you know, achievements and a deal was at our reach, why they decided to attack us. Perhaps, you know, it was others who dragged the United States for their own benefits into

this, you know, conflict. It's really pity. It's very unfortunate.

And yes. Mr. Arachi, I just I appreciate your comments there. And we do have a series of other questions I want to ask you. But just for clarity for our audience right now, can you confirm with specificity that the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is alive and separately that the Iranian president is alive right now following these American and Israeli strikes?

As far as I know, yes, they are alive. And the head of judiciary as well, the head of the speaker of parliament as well, all high-ranking officials are alive. And the secretary of the National Security Council. So everybody is now in its position and we are handling this situation and everything is fine.

Sir, do you believe that you were targeted as part of these strikes?

You mean me?

Yes.

Well, I don't know. They have targeted everybody. You know, just now I saw the footages of their attack to a girl school in which in the city of Minab in the southern part of Iran. So 57 girls were killed by their strike. So when they strike a school, so they can also hit others easily.

This attack was unprovoked, illegal, and absolutely illegitimate and against the international law and should be condemned. That is that is obvious. You said that Iran

is prepared to take self-defense towards these actions. What would that entail. Well we are

facing an act of aggression and obviously we have every right to defend ourselves. So what we are doing is act of self-defense, which is absolutely legal and legitimate. So and we think that we are fully prepared for that, even more prepared than previous time, the 12 day war. And I believe we managed this. We know very well how to defend ourselves.

We learned lots of lessons from the previous war, and we will certainly teach the aggressors a lesson they deserve.

Mr. Arachi, if I may ask you very quickly right now, we know that Iran via the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard, via its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, has carried out attacks on Americans, on others throughout that region. Iran insists that its nuclear program has never been with the desire to create nuclear weapons. But my question to you is, sir, why should the United States and why should the rest of the world trust Iran when it says its efforts to create a nuclear program are only for civilian use

and not to continue to carry out harm against Western and American interests?

Well, first of all, we don't have proxies. They are certain groups who are fighting for a just cause and we support them. So that would make them a proxy, correct, sir? But, you know, they are not receiving orders from us. They are independent groups, but we support them and, you know, we support them in their, you know, fight, you know, for the right of self-determination or to free their land from occupation, whatever. But for the time being, we don't need anybody for our defense. We are capable enough to defend ourselves, and we will do that and we

don't need the help of anybody. On our nuclear program, I think there are every reason that Iran does not want nuclear weapon. And you have and the whole world has tested us when in 2015 we signed a deal and we announced very clearly that Iran would never seek, develop, or acquire nuclear weapons. And that was a permanent commitment in 2015 deal. I know that President Trump doesn't like that deal, but at least we proved our goodwill, and we proved that we are not seeking nuclear weapons.

And it was not Iran who withdrew from that deal, it was the US. And still in 2025, when the US offered us negotiation to find a solution for Iran's nuclear program, again, we accepted, we entered into negotiation in good faith. At least three times, we came to a good conclusion,

but my interlocutor in the other side couldn't sell it in Washington. Then they suddenly attacked us. Again, this time, we entered into negotiation with the help of our Omani friends and others. Everybody supported those negotiations. And, you know, we made significant progress this time. And

then they attacked us. So we have it is it is us who have, you know, negative, bitter experiences from talking to the United States. We have never wanted nuclear weapon. There is both religious, you know, convictions by us, the verdict by the Supreme Leader who considered all these weapons as inhumane and, you know, against the Islamic teachings. At the same time, they have no place in our security doctrine, and I can explain.

But I would like to reaffirm once again that we have proved our goodwill. We negotiated with E3 and then E3 plus three or P5 plus one, and we came to a, we concluded a deal, the whole world celebrated, and we remain committed to that deal in 2015. But it

was the U.S. who we do not us. And again the experiences of last year and this year. So I think the one who should prove its

good faith is good will is the United States not Iran. Sir as many Americans are waking up this morning and seeing images of Israel and other nations try to defend itself. What is your message to the American

people about how far Iran will go? Well, we have no limits to defend ourselves. Does that include attacking Americans? Well, the attacking American military built up in our region. We are not attacking Americans in their land. Americans are attacking our people in our cities. But this is not what we are going to do. We are attacking the Americans' bases, military bases in the region and military installations

and facilities. And this is only as an act of self-defense. We are not the one who starts this aggression. It was the United States and Israel who started this aggression. So there is no limit for us to defend ourselves, but once the aggression is stopped,

we would also stop our self-defense. This is quite obvious and quite natural.

Mr. Araci, in recent weeks, we saw a crackdown by the Iranian regime on civilian protesters throughout that country. Depending on where you receive your information, hundreds or even thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Iranian people were killed. In this moment, for the Iranian people, will you commit that Iran will not crack down, will not attack, maim, or kill the people of Iran if they choose to protest peacefully

against their government?

Well, I have to correct your disinformation. We didn't crack down the protesters. We cracked down a terrorist operation. You know, from 28th December to 7th January, we had peaceful protests in our streets, and that was absolutely tolerated. Even the government decided to engage with the leaders of those protests to find a solution for the

problems they have faced, and everything was peaceful and nobody was killed. But on 8th of January to 10, it was totally different story. Armed elements added to those protests, they came from outside, they received instructions from outside, specifically from Mossad and Israelis,

and they started shooting at our police and security forces. So it was completely a different story, a terrorist operation, and we had no way but to crack it down.

So for clarity, you're saying that those who were killed were exclusively foreign agents? None of them, is your claim, were Iranians?

No, let me to explain. Those elements entered into the demonstrations and protests, and they started shooting at our police forces, and then they started shooting at people. And it was very strange. And then they started even shooting at the protesters. Why?

Because they wanted to increase the number of killings because the president of the United States had said that if there are killings, I will come to rescue. So in order to drag him into a war with Iran, they started shooting at people. So they increased the number of—in order to increase the number of deaths. And the total number was, as we have said, 3,117, and the list of all victims have been already published by us.

About 2,500 of which are considered by us as martyrs. Ordinary people who were killed by these terrorist elements. 200 police forces. What do you do in the United States if somebody shoot at your police? You would certainly react very harshly. And this is what we did. And then it was, you know, over

in less than in a two and a half days. So please distinguish and separate between protesters, peaceful protesters in the streets and then a terrorist operation, which was something else. So we consider those three days as a plot by Israelis and the continuation of the 12-day war. So why they did it? Because they wanted—because last time in the war, in the 12-day war, they saw that

people came to the streets in support of the Islamic Republic. There was a social unity in support of the system. This time they wanted to change the course, so they started with some riots in the streets. They gave weapons to certain elements to come and shoot people, so we would have this chaos. And then attack us exactly what is going on right now. So all of those were very well planned you know plot by Israelis and Americans. But we were able to control that you know operation and we are able to

defend ourselves this time. And you will see that how we can defend ourselves and the world would see.

Sir, you heard likely the President of the United States talk about regime change in Iran this morning in his recorded statements. What is your message to the President?

Well, I think this is mission impossible. You know, regime change, you cannot do regime change while millions of people are supporting these so-called regime. Just look at what happened in the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. We had altogether about 30 million people in the streets in all cities of Iran in support of the Islamic Republic

and in support of the whole system. So you cannot change this regime because it's supported by the people. Yes, there are also people who are complaining, but they are strong supporters of the regime, of the system at the same time.

And then we have a very well established political structure, and they have tried regime change. This is not the first time that they want to do regime change. They have tried in the past. Look, in the past 47 years,

the United States has tried everything from coup, from sanctions, eight years of war by Saddam Hussein, supported by the United States and many others. And then, you know, 12-day war, a snapback, you know, in the Security Council and, you know, terrorist operations. They have tried everything, and all of them failed. And I don't know why they don't, you know, understand their failures.

So if they want to repeat a failed experience, they won't get any better result.

Then, sir, what is your message to the Iranian people? We understand that you describe the president's call for regime change as mission impossible. What is your message to the people of Iran right now? In your words, everything is under control, but based on what the world is seeing, there appears to be smoke coming up from a variety of different sites throughout Tehran. There appears to be some panic and real concern there.

What do you tell the people of that country about the state of its government and the state of Iran broadly?

Well, I said everything is under control. I didn't say that there is no war. Of course there is war. Of course there is panic. Of course there are attacks to different buildings. Of course, about 60 students, girls, students have been killed in one school. Of course, there are those

things. But I my message to my own people is that we are a great nation with a great civilization. We have lasted for thousands of years and we know how to defend ourselves. We know how to deal with our enemies. And we will survive when we become more stronger out of this.

So when you hear the president say to the people of Iran, your freedom is your own, rise up, the United States will be with you, you say to them that's a hollow gesture. Isn't that the intervention in the you know internal

affairs of another country. If we had done so what what do you what have you said. So the president of another country how no matter how powerful powerful has no rights to decide for the people of another country, to order the people of another country what to do and what not to do. And this is what he did, by the way, in those terrorist operations. He was the one who said,

set fires in the governmental buildings. Do this, do that. And now he's asking people to, you know, rise against their government. Has he, you know, any right to do that? I don't think so.

Sir, are there any back channel talks, any communications that are taking place right now or are those done and separately, can this be de-escalated and how?

Well, there is no communication right now. But if Americans want to talk to us, they know how they can contact me. We are certainly interested for de-escalation. This is not our war. This is an imposed war against us. This is a war of choice by the United States, and they have to pay for that, and I will,

they will, they do. But as far as we are concerned, we don't want war. We don't want escalation in our region. We are ready for de-escalation but the aggression should be stopped first. The attacks should be stopped first and then there is the possibility to talk and we can consider that. I'm not promising anything because our people are very angry right now. So if the war is stopped if the aggression is stopped, if the aggression is stopped, then we will see how we can, you

know, work for de-escalation.

Sir, just days ago, you had said that there had been a semblance of an agreement between the U.S. and Iran and a way to avoid a war, if you will. What specific concessions was Iran not willing to give up?

Well, on our nuclear program, we made it clear for the American team that we are prepared to do everything in order to prove that our nuclear program is peaceful and would remain peaceful forever. What we are not prepared for is to give up our right. We are not giving up our right, including for enrichment, but we are ready to build confidence on our nuclear program

to make sure that our program is peaceful and would remain peaceful forever. For that reason, for that goal, we offered good concessions to the U.S. team when we met them last Thursday, two days ago. I may go into the details of those concessions in another program, perhaps, in order for the whole world to understand

and for Americans to understand that we were progressing. We made significant progress. We agreed to do enrichment only based on our needs, the needs of Iranian people. I can tell you one of our needs. It is your Tehran Research Reactor.

This is a small reactor, by by the way built by Americans before the revolution. And this reactor produces radio isotopes medicines needed for nearly two million Iranians. So how we can give it up how we can just stop this reactor. So we would continue our program based on our own needs. This is what we can do and we are prepared to do that. And we can accept robust ver more confidence-building measures in order to make sure, as I said,

that everything would remain peaceful. So I see the possibility to reach a deal which can guarantee that Iran's program is peaceful. At the same time, sanctions are lifted and economic cooperation can be you know started and You know, we go for peace and I don't know why the United States why present Trump Trump just missed that

Opportunity ask the foreign minister of Oman how close we were to get a deal

Mr. Rachi if I may we heard from the president first in his State of the Union address that took place on Tuesday and again this morning in recorded remarks that I'm sure you've heard the president said, among other things, that Iran has been building missiles that, in his words, could soon reach the American homeland. So as it relates to Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, does Iran now have the capability to reach the U.S.

homeland. How far removed is it from that capability. No no. We don't have those that capability. We have intentionally kept the range of our missiles below 2000 kilometers. So we don't have that capability and we don't want to do that because we don't have any hostility against the United States people or Europeans or whatsoever. We have built that capability in order to defend ourselves against our enemies. And you know, our missile missiles proved to be the most reliable means of defense for us. So obviously we cannot compromise on our missiles because our security depends on them. So the more you know, the the U. S. Administration, the more Europeans or whoever insists that Iran should disarm

itself from those missiles, the more we are convinced that in order to protect ourselves, we need those missiles. So our missiles have defensive nature. Our missiles is only for deterrence and defense. They are not for aggression. And nobody has any record of any aggression by us

against our neighbors in the past 200 years. So for clarity, so for clarity, you said that your missiles cannot reach the United States by design, that you do not want to reach the United States. But you also said it would be necessary as a defensive vehicle that you could, if necessary. So to be clear clear are you committing that Iran is not and will not build missiles that would have the capability to reach the United States. I can confirm yes. Sir if that's a red line for you why is attacking U.S.

military bases abroad justified. But because they are they are attacking us. They are US military installations, facilities, bases, who are attacking us. We are under attack. Why don't you recognize this fact? We are under the attack by US, by US forces in the region.

So we have every right to defend ourselves. And how to defend ourselves? we attack the US bases. This is obvious. This is a very simple fact. And I hope that, and I'm sure that people would understand that. We are not the one who attacked Americans.

We are only defending ourselves.

Did these attacks that were carried out by the U.S. and Israel today destroy Iranian missile bases?

Well, I don't think so, because, you know, we are firing our missiles almost every hour.

Did it destroy any missile bases there?

Well, I don't know. I have no detailed information yet. But as I see, only one hour after the US attacks, we started to launch missiles to hit targets in Israel and in US bases. That means that our capability is there and we have enough capability, we have enough strength to continue this as long as needed. I am telling this with confidence. We are more prepared than previous war, quantity-wise and quality-wise.

Mr. Arashi, we have heard from many foreign leaders throughout the world, among them from the Kremlin. We have heard from Russia. We are beginning to hear from other nations elsewhere. What, if any, communications has Iran had from some of its allies, many of them viewed as adversaries to the United States, around the world about what they are committed to do

at this time?

Well, I had a good conversation with my colleagues in the region with Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, you know, all those GCC countries. And you know, my mission is to end the war. This is my mission as foreign minister, to end this unprovoked war against us. And we are in close contact with our friends in Russia and China and others in the region. And I am prepared to work on any idea which is just and reasonable and can help, you know, helping this war, you know, ending this war with pride, of course.

Mr. Abbas Arrachi is the foreign minister of Iran. Mr. Arrachi, we appreciate your perspective and coming to speak with us this morning.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

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