Iran has the means – both military and diplomatic – to protect its critical infrastructure, including its peaceful nuclear energy program, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has indicated.
“Attacking nuclear sites is a big international crime; even threatening nuclear sites is a crime… To defend ourselves and our nuclear sites, we have our own tools and methods, and we count on them,” Araghchi said Tuesday in a press conference in Kuwait City amid his sweeping diplomatic tour of the region.
“Israel has not stopped short of perpetrating any form of crime up until now. Unfortunately, it continues to commit such atrocities with the support of the United States and certain European countries,” Araghchi said, warning that “if our critical infrastructure is attacked, the Zionist enemy knows what we can do in response.”
The foreign minister added that Iran’s “friends” in the region “have given us assurances that they will neither allow their soil nor their airspace to be used to launch an attack on Iran,” and “have expressed their opposition to any assault on Iran and its nuclear facilities.”
“We are monitoring closely the movements of American bases in the region and are aware of all their movements and flights. If Israel attacks Iran in any form, Iran will respond in the same format,” Araghchi stressed.
Abbas Araghchi’s whirlwind diplomatic tour has taken him to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Iraq, Egypt, Turkiye, and Kuwait. Earlier this month, Iran's foreign minister visited Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.
The diplomatic offensive comes amid Iran’s ongoing preparations for an Israeli attack in response to a large-scale IRGC ballistic missile strike targeting Israeli military and intelligence sites on October 1 – which managed to pierce Israel’s much-touted air and missile defenses and cause damage to military infrastructure. The October 1 attack was itself a response to months of Israeli escalations – including the assassinations of Hamas Politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned Tuesday that any Israeli attack would be met with a “proportional response” from Tehran. Pezeshkian also submitted a blueprint budget to lawmakers Tuesday prioritizing defense.
On Sunday, US House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed media reports of a leak of sensitive US intelligence assessments on Israeli plans to attack Iran on social media. An “investigation [is] underway and I’ll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours… We are following it closely,” Johnson told CNN.
Saeed Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, sent a letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres and Security Council President Christine Baeriswyl on Monday warning the US against any involvement in Israeli adventurism.
“The United States’ involvement, through its provision of technical expertise and advanced weaponry, including sophisticated air defense systems, to Israel, that would further instigate and embolden Israel to conduct aggressive attacks against Iran, would make the US government complicit in any Israeli aggression against Iran and its consequences, as it has already been complicit in the ongoing war crimes and genocidal campaign targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon,” the letter said.
“Therefore, the United States will bear full responsibility for its role in instigating, inciting and enabling any acts of aggression by Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran…as well as for the catastrophic consequences on regional and international peace and security,” Iravani warned, calling on the Security Council to “unequivocally condemn this reckless provocation” and demand that Washington “fulfill its obligations under international law and the UN Charter.”