MS NOW EXCLUSIVE with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

Foreign Minister Arakshi, thank you so much for your time this morning, sir. I wanted to start with the news overnight that the U.S. has carried out a military strike on Harg Island. The president of the United States said that, for reasons of decency, I have chosen not to wipe out all the oil infrastructure on the island. However, should Iran or anyone else do anything to interfere with the free and safe passage

of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, I will immediately reconsider this decision. Let me start by asking you about what has happened on Harg Island and what is Iran's response to these strikes.

Well, thank you so much for having me. I think our armed forces have already answered that they would retaliate if our oil and energy infrastructure are attacked, and they will attack any energy infrastructure in the region which belongs to an American company or an American company is a shareholder. So the reaction would be clear. Last night, they have attacked

Hark Island and Abu Musa Island with the artillery rocket system, you know, HIMARS, as they call it, which is a low-range rocket. And they have done it from the soil of our neighbors. And this is crystal clear that now they are using

the territory of our neighbors to attack us by these kind of, you know, rockets. And this is absolutely unacceptable.

Which neighbors, sir?

Well, these last-night attacks were tracked by our forces, and now it is clear that they are fired from UAE, from two locations in the UAE, in Ras al-Khaimah and from a location very close to the city of Dubai. And it is very, you know, dangerous that they use highly populated areas to launch, you know, rockets against us. We would certainly retaliate, but we try to be careful not to attack any populated area.

Is there any sign that Iran is prepared to allow passage of the Straits of Hormuz? Will the Straits of Hormuz remain closed so long as this war continues?

Well as a matter of fact, the Straits of Hormuz is open. It is only closed to the tankers and ships belonging to our enemies, to those who are attacking us and their allies. Others are free to pass. Of course, many of them prefer not because of their security concerns. This has nothing to do with us. And at the same time, there are many tankers and ships who are passing through the Strait of Hormuz. And I can say that the Strait is not closed, but it is only closed to American, Israeli,

you know, ships and tankers, and not to others.

We know that Iran has elected a new supreme leader, Mushtabah Khamenei. He has not been seen yet in public, though he did issue a statement yesterday. I'm sure you have heard the comments from the U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hexeth, who has said that he claimed the supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. What is the status of the supreme leader, Moshav Khamenei?

Well, they have made so many claims like this. Yesterday, they said that all Iranian authorities are in the bunkers. But at the same time, the whole world saw our president, the speaker of parliament, everybody, you know, the secretary of our National Security Council, everybody was in the street among the people who demonstrated.

So there are lots of accusations like that. They will see soon, I guess, that there is no problem with the new Supreme Leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties—he is performing his duties according to the Constitution, and he will continue to do that. I think by now it should have been clear and it should have been known for everybody that

our system is very well rooted in the society. The Islamic Republic is a system which is not dependent on any individual or any group of people. It is well established. It's a very well established political structure.

And the deepest state is doing its functions, it's functioning, and everything is in place. So they shouldn't have any hope for anything happen to the individuals. The system is working, it worked properly after the assassinationand martyrdom of our supreme leader, you saw that nothing

happened, and everything remained in order, and still everything is under control.

I wanted to ask you about the war strategy from an Iranian perspective. Can you tell us right now, as you know there has been reporting that both Russia and China are providing targeting intelligence to Iran to target either U.S. positions, facilities, infrastructure across the region. Can you confirm or deny whether Russia or China is providing military support and intelligence

to Iran? Well, Russia and China are our strategic partners, and we have had close cooperation in the past, which is still continuous. And that includes military cooperation as well. I'm not going into any details of that. A good cooperation with these two countries, politically, economically, even militarily, to say once again that this is not our war. This is an imposed war against us. We didn't start this war. It was an unprovoked, unwarranted, illegal act of aggression against

us, and we are only defending ourselves. And we continue to defend ourselves as much as it takes and as long as it takes in order to end this war in a way that it won't be repeated in the future.

As you probably saw, the United Nations this week, U.N. Security Council, passed a resolution condemning your attacks on your Arab neighbors. It received 130 cosponsors, which is a very significant number. Your close allies that you just said are providing you support, Russia and China, they didn't veto that. They abstained from it, but they didn't veto it, and allowed the resolution to pass.

Do you think the global community has spoken clearly about the way Iran has conducted this war on its Arab neighbors, with condemnation and calling on it to stop?

The Security Council is suffering from the lack of justice in its decisions and resolutions it makes. You know, it's — how is it possible that the Security Council condemned us for defending ourselves and is not condemning the United States and Israel who started this aggression? So if they want to have a justful decision or resolution which can work, they should consider all aspects of any event.

You know, we are under attack. It was the United States and Israel who started this war. They deserve to be condemned, not us. What we are doing is defense. And this is why that, you know, so many countries have become hopeless about the role of the Security Council, including the United States, who has decided to go for its own board of people, even for the United States. The council votes, you know, politically and based on the interests of, you know, certain countries and not based on realities, based on justice.

You do acknowledge, though, that Iran is targeting civilian targets across the Gulf countries, right? Because, you know, I've spoken to officials across the region, and many of the targets that have been hit are clearly civilian buildings. Why is Iran targeting civilian buildings and airports and commercial ports in Gulf countries that made clear they are not involved in these attacks against your country? MR.

HASHEMIYAH GHAFFAR, Director-General, International Peace and Security Council, United Nations Council on the Peace and Security of the Persian Gulf Countries, United Nations Council on

the Peace and Security of the Persian Gulf Countries, United Nations Council on the Peace

and Security of the Persian Gulf Countries, United Nations Council on the Peace and Security of the Persian Gulf Countries, United Nations Council on the Peace and Security of the Persian What we are doing as an act of self-defense is to targeting American bases, American installations, American assets, and American interests, which are unfortunately located in the territory of our neighbors. Just as an example, two days ago, the United States attacked one of our banks. They are doing, you know, they are attacking our cities and our civilian targets.

They attacked a school in Minar. It is very well known for the whole world. They have attacked some hospitals. Two days ago, they attacked a bank. A building belongs to a bank. And so we decided to retaliate in kind with the building built into cities around us. So what we are doing is only the principle of an eye for an eye, which is very well known.

Let me ask you really quickly about the negotiations before the war started. Do you believe Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner were good-faith negotiators conveying accurate information back to the White House about Iran's position during these negotiations. There have been some reports that you shouted at Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner, that you threatened that you had enriched uranium to make 11 nuclear weapons.

I want you to set the record straight on those negotiations in the final days before the

war.

DR.

HOSSEIN AL-MUTAHARI, Director, International Security Council for Iran and the United States Well, I don't know what they have conveyed to their boss. What I know is that on 26 February, when we met in Geneva, we were able to make good progress. As Omani foreign minister, the intermediator, said it was a significant progress. And before he posted his tweet, he read it to both delegations, and both delegations accepted that, yes, this is the right saying about what we have made today, significant progress. This is what we were able to do it in on 26 February. Well, the things which are said by U.S. interlocutors, well, I do understand why they are saying those things. They want to justify an unjustifiable act

of aggression. So they are trying to make some excuses for themselves. I never said that we are going to make bombs. I said that we have 440 kilos of 60% enriched material, and that was not a secret. That is what is mentioned in the reports of the IAEA. So I said that, look, this is mentioned in the report, this, if enriched more, can be good enough for 10 bombs, as your own experts claim. So we are ready to give them up and to give them away. We are ready to dilute them, to downblend them into lower degrees. And by saying that, I wanted to say that the concession that we are ready to dilute them, to downblend them into lower degrees. And by saying that,

I wanted to say that the concession that we are going—that we are making is really big. But how they have interpreted that, I don't know. Maybe because the lack of enough knowledge, maybe because of, you know, their intentions to justify, as I said, the act of aggression, which cannot be justified. I hope that the true story of what happened on 26 February in Geneva would become known to the people soon. We will make close to reach a deal.

Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you so much for your time. Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you so much for your time. We are out of time. We are out of time. We certainly appreciate you joining us.