Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that several countries, including China, Russia and France, have contacted Tehran to discuss a possible ceasefire.
“Our first condition for a ceasefire is that the aggression does not happen again,” Gharibabadi said in an interview published today by the Persian news agency ISNA.
“We did not start the aggression or the war,” the diplomat said in response to ceasefire appeals, adding that the country is defending itself.
The remarks come after Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi rejected peace negotiations with the United States on Monday.
“We are ready to continue striking them with missiles for as long as necessary and whenever necessary,” the Iranian foreign minister told US broadcaster PBS News. Araqchi added that negotiations with Washington “are no longer on the agenda” and that Iran is prepared to fight “for as long as necessary.”
On Sunday, he had already rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire during an interview with another US broadcaster, NBC.
US president Donald Trump made contradictory statements on Monday about the immediate future of the war in Iran, first saying it was “practically over” and then that he still did not know “how far it could go.”
Trump listed several alleged achievements after ten days of war, including strikes on five thousand targets, the sinking of more than 50 ships, the destruction of drone factories and the reduction of the Iranian regime’s missile capacity to 10% or “maybe less.”
In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its missiles are “now more powerful than at the start of the war” and that it has the capacity to expand the conflict. “We are prepared to expand the war — security will be for all, or insecurity for all. It is we who will determine the end of the war,” the elite military body said in a statement published by the Iranian Fars news agency.
The US and Israel launched a campaign of military strikes against Iran on February 28. In response, Iran launched retaliatory strikes against targets in Israel, US bases and other infrastructure in countries across the region, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman and Iraq. Incidents involving Iranian projectiles were also recorded in Cyprus, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia today reported new strikes against their territories on the eleventh day of the war against Iran. The UAE Ministry of Defence announced on X that air defences intercepted several missiles and drones from Iran and asked the population to “follow safety instructions.” Kuwait’s National Guard “successfully intercepted and shot down six drones” in the country’s northern and southern sectors, the state news agency announced. Bahrain’s Interior Ministry asked the population to head to “the nearest safe location” and remain calm, as air raid alerts sounded across the country, though authorities had not yet reported any specific strikes.
