An attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will lead to “all-out war in the region”, the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told broadcaster Al Jazeera in an interview on Friday.
Araqchi issued a warning to Washington, saying that if it launches an attack with Israel against the nuclear sites, it would be “one of the biggest historical mistakes the US could make”.
According to news agency Reuters, the decision-makers in Tehran fear that the Trump administration will “empower” Jerusalem to strike Iran’s nuclear sites – many deep underground – coupled with further tightening of US sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil industry.
Reuters added that these concerns, coming against the backdrop of dire economic conditions angering the Iranian public, could prompt the mullahs to enter into talks with Washington over its advanced nuclear programme.
Iran’s foreign minister said that unblocking Iranian financial assets could serve as a bridge for future negotiations with the US.
“Iranian assets and funds have been frozen at various points by the US, [which] has not fulfilled its previous pledges [to free them]. These things can be done by the US administration in order to bring confidence between us,” Araqchi was quoted as saying.
He made similar remarks in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Tuesday.
During his interview with Al Jazeera, Araqchi also applauded terror group Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, saying that the largest massacre of Jews since the largest massacre of Jews outside the Holocaust “revived the Palestinian cause”.
The Iranian foreign minister, who visited Qatar last week and met with the leadership of Hamas based in the capital Doha, “reaffirmed the Islamic Republic of Iran’s unwavering and principled policy of supporting the Palestinian resistance until the full realisation of Palestinian rights, including their right to self-determination and the complete liberation of Palestine from [Israeli] occupation”, according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry.
US President Donald Trump said on January 23 he hoped that Israel would not attack Iran’s nuclear faculties, but he appeared to suggest that this was a possibility if the Islamic Republic does not accept a deal on its programme.
“We’ll have to see. I’m going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days. Hopefully, that can be worked out without having to worry about it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibility of an Israeli strike.
“It would really be nice if that could be worked out without having to go that further step. Hopefully, that can be worked out. Iran hopefully will make a deal, and if they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s okay too,” he said.
During his first term in 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement with Iran and stepped up sanctions on the regime in Tehran. The deal offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for its promise to dial back its nuclear programme for a maximum of 10 years.
