Iran will respond immediately and decisively if its nuclear sites are attacked which would lead to an "all-out war in the region," Tehran's foreign minister told Al Jazeera TV in an interview aired on Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, Reuters/Dilara Senkaya
Iran will respond immediately and decisively if its nuclear sites are attacked which would lead to an "all-out war in the region," Tehran's foreign minister told Al Jazeera TV in an interview aired on Friday.
Israel and the U.S. launching a military attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would be "one of the biggest historical mistakes the U.S. could make," Abbas Araqchi said through a translator.
Concerns have grown among Iran's top decision-makers that U.S. President Donald Trump might in his second term empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran's nuclear sites while further tightening U.S. sanctions on its oil industry.
Those concerns, coupled with mounting anger within Iran over economic conditions, could drive Tehran toward engaging in negotiations with the Trump administration over the fate of its fast-advancing nuclear programme.
Araqchi suggested that the United States could free blocked Iranian funds as a first confidence-building step between the two hostile countries.
"Iranian assets and funds have been frozen at various points by the U.S (which) has not fulfilled its previous pledges (to free them). These things can be done by the U.S. administration in order to bring confidence between us," Araqchi said.
In 2018, then-President Trump reneged on the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and a group of world powers and re-imposed harsh U.S. sanctions as part of his "maximum pressure" policy against the country.
In response, Tehran breached the deal in several ways including by accelerating its uranium enrichment.
Trump has vowed to return to the policy he pursued in his previous term that sought to use economic pressure to force the country to negotiate a deal on its nuclear programme, ballistic missile programme and regional activities.
Reporting by Enas Alashray and Ahmed Tolba
US embassies in Jerusalem, Baghdad and Amman issued security alerts Saturday urging American citizens to exercise "heightened vigilance," as tensions flare between Iran and the United States. Americans were also told to "consider departing, or be prepared to depart should there be escalation."
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile.
Britain has asked Cyprus to extradite a dual British-Azerbaijani national suspected of spying on a British air base on the Mediterranean island and passing his findings to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, London police said on Friday.
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