Iran wants to preserve regional peace but is “absolutely” prepared to meet aggression head-on, and has no “red lines” when it comes to the defense of its people or interests, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has announced.
“The US has been delivering a record amount of arms to Israel. It is now also putting the lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel. While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araghchi wrote in an X post on Sunday.
The foreign minister accompanied the post with a chart from a recent study by Brown University’s Costs of War project, showing a historically unprecedented level of in US military aid to Israel over the past year since the Jewish State’s creation in 1948.
Araghchi’s remarks about the deployment of US troops is a likely reference to recent Israeli media reports that the US may be planning to deploy a THAAD missile system to Israel, together with the personnel to operate them. Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder confirmed Sunday that the deployment would take place, and that President Biden had signed off on the decision.
Separately on Sunday, at a joint press conference with Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Baghdad, Araghchi reiterated Iran’s readiness for conflict, even as Tehran continues to seek a peaceful resolution to seething regional tensions.
“We are fully prepared for a war situation. We are not afraid of war but we do not want war and we will make efforts for a just peace in Gaza and Lebanon,” the top diplomat said. “The Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek an escalation of tension, conflict and war, although it is ready for any situation. We are ready for war as we are ready for peace and this is the firm position of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Araghchi said.
“The region is in a state of alarm, and the likelihood of an outbreak of clashes is very high, which is rooted in the Zionist regime’s crimes,” the foreign minister said, pointing to the ongoing conflict “which started in Gaza and has now spread to Lebanon and is likely to be spread to other regional countries.”
Praising “very good consultations” with his Iraqi counterpart on the “dangerous and sensitive issues in our region and in the Persian Gulf,” Araghchi praised Baghdad’s move to reject the use of its airspace to target Iran, and said the two countries had agreed “to consult” to “push for a ceasefire” in Gaza.
The Iraqi foreign minister, for his part, emphasized to press that Iraq will not be allowed to be turned into a battlefield, and echoed other officials in warning that Israeli aggression against Lebanon threatens to drag the region into full-scale conflagration.
Iraq maintains a careful balance between regional interests and powers, preserving friendly ties with its Iranian neighbor, and incorporating Iran-allied Shia militias into its security forces, while continuing to host a limited contingent of US troops on its territory, with the troops ostensibly there to prevent a resurgence of ISIS* terrorism in the country. Iraqi officials have carefully pressured Washington to withdraw these forces since 2020 and the assassination of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.
Tehran is bracing for a fresh escalation by Israel in the wake of its October 1 ballistic missile strike against Israeli military and intelligence assets, with Israeli leaders threatening to target Iran’s nuclear program sites and making other threats before toning down their rhetoric. Iran carried out the October 1 barrage in retaliation to a series of Israeli assassinations of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders, including Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah General-Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, over recent months.
Iran launched similar strikes against Israel in mid-April over the April 1 Israeli airstrike on its Embassy compound in Damascus, Syria. The October 1 attack proved far more serious, with footage posted to social media appearing to show dozens of the estimated 200 Iranian missiles that were launched touching down on target without being intercepted by Israel’s much-vaunted air and missile defense network.
* Also known as IS or Daesh, a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.