“Don’t know how much room is left for diplomacy,” Iran Foreign min says

Tehran [Iran], June 22 (ANI): Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday condemned the US strikes on the country’s nuclear facilities and said that there is not much room for diplomacy while being under attack, CNN reported.

Araghchi said that the US crossed a red line by attacking them.

He went on to say he does not know how “much room is left for diplomacy" after the attack from the US, CNN reported.

“They crossed a very big red line by attacking nuclear facilities… We have to respond based on our legitimate right for self-defence," Araghchi said.

Araghchi said Iran has a “variety of options available" when he was asked if his country is considering closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway in the Persian Gulf that, if shut, could affect global oil and gas exports.

Iran’s top diplomat said he’s been in touch with several foreign ministers from the region and “almost all of them are very much concerned" and are interested in playing a role in stopping “the Israeli aggression," as per CNN.

Araghchi said that the “warmongering" White House will be “fully responsible" for the consequences of its actions.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran condemns in the strongest terms the United State’s brutal military aggression against Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities. It is an outrageous, grave and unprecedented violation of the fundamental principles of the charter of the United Nations and international law," Araghchi said at a news conference in Istanbul on Sunday, quoted by CNN.

He said the “warmongering and lawless administration in Washington is solely and fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far-reaching implications of its act of aggression."

“Silence in the face of such blatant aggression will plunge the world into an unprecedented level of danger and chaos. Humanity has come too far as a species to allow a lawless bully to take us back to the law of the jungle," he added.

Araghchi called on the United Nations’ Security Council to convene an emergency session “to unequivocally condemn the criminal act of aggression by the United States against Iran and to hold the administration in Washington accountable for its violations of fundamental principles of the United Nations charter and of norms of international law."

Araghchi further said that Iran continues to defend itself by all means necessary against not just US military aggression, but also the reckless and unlawful actions of the Israeli regime."

US President Donald Trump on Saturday (US local time) announced that America carried out “massive precision" strikes on Iran and warned the latter of further retaliation if peace was not achieved. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)

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