Araghchi made the remark on Thursday in a meeting with Ahmad Motahhari Asal, the Friday prayer leader of Tabriz, the capital city of East Azarbaijan Province in northwestern Iran. The foreign minister arrived in Tabriz a day earlier on a provincial trip.
“What safeguards the country is our national power and Armed Forces,” the foreign minister said, adding that Iranian diplomats operate confidently on the international stage by relying on that power and their Armed Forces.
He also hailed Iran’s missile power, which he said helped the country defend its territory powerfully during the 12-day war, which Israel began on June 13 and the United States entered later by bombing Iranian nuclear sites.
“Our missiles have been the greatest source of our strength, and we saw that the enemy was forced to request an unconditional ceasefire after 12 days,” Araghchi noted.
“Since we were engaged in legitimate self-defense, we emerged from the war with dignity, and the righteousness of the Iranian people and the legitimacy of our stance were proven to the whole world,” he added.
The foreign minister further said that the alignment between Iran’s military and diplomatic fronts had played a decisive role in deterring adversaries. “When the military and diplomatic fields moved in the same direction, they managed to stop the enemies,” he stressed.
