Saeed Khatibzadeh emphasized:
“We are under attack. An act of aggression has occurred. We were in the middle of diplomatic efforts. We were planning to gather in Oslo for the sixth round of negotiations. We were on the verge of reaching an agreement when, all of a sudden, the Israelis decided to launch an act of aggression against Iran.”
“They sabotaged the entire process. We are now receiving contradictory messages from the Americans. Back-door messages say, ‘We are not involved, and we are not going to be involved,’ but the public messages from President Trump suggest that the Americans were aware, participated, and in fact supported this [attack].”
Khatibzadeh said Iran has not contacted the White House. He reiterated that what is happening to Iran is an act of aggression: “We are under attack.”
He emphasized: “We are not attacking anyone. We are defending ourselves.”
He stated that Western media are biased in their coverage of the atrocities committed by what he called “this genocidal regime.”
“They attacked us, and hundreds of Iranian civilians have been murdered so far. They threaten our head of state. They killed our top commanders — all while we were in the middle of diplomacy.”
“We are acting in self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, and we will continue to defend ourselves until the aggressor learns that they cannot simply attack a sovereign country…”
Khatibzadeh said that we were on the diplomacy but until now this aggression has continued ..under these bombardment and under these brutal aggression, nobody can go for negotiations.
The moment this aggression stops, diplomacy will, of course, be our first option. But now, what we are seeing and hearing from the Americans is that they are considering getting involved in this war. We believe this is not an American war, but they seem willing to enter it. President Trump will be remembered forever for a war that was not his, but one he was dragged into. This will become a quagmire and a nightmare for the entire region.
When there is foreign aggression, national unity emerges. What we are witnessing right now is exactly that: national unity both inside and outside Iran. This is not a matter of superiority in hard power — it is a matter of resistance. Diplomacy has always been on the table. Mr. Trump knows better than anyone that we were on the verge of reaching an agreement. The issue is that Netanyahu, knowing this, tried to sabotage the process.
I do not want to make a judgment now, but Mr. Trump knows this better, because Mr. Witkoff was reporting to him. When we were in Oslo, he sent us messages expressing his desire to meet with us.
Israel, a non-NPT member that possesses nuclear warheads, has attacked us. Iran has no nuclear warheads and is a member of the NPT. The IAEA is currently supervising our nuclear activities. This attack on our nuclear sites is a very dangerous move. From now on, it sets a precedent that any country under IAEA supervision can be attacked. The move by Israel is highly dangerous and could escalate conflict throughout the region.
What we are hearing from the Europeans is that they wish to return to diplomacy. They are planning an E3+ meeting in Geneva. As for the Americans, we have repeatedly sent the message: “As long as these attacks continue on Iranian soil — as long as our hospitals in various parts of the country are being targeted and our nuclear scientists are being assassinated — we cannot begin any negotiations with them.”
