Tehran: Iran will continue to fight despite the loss of its senior-most security official, Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi said this week. "The presence or absence of a single individual does not affect Iran's political and economic structure," Araghchi said while speaking to Al Jazeera news channel.
Araghchi's comments followed the death of Ali Larijani, chief of Iran's national security council, in a US-Israeli airstrike as the war in the Gulf nears the three-week mark. Larijani, who is credited to have been the architect of Iran's defense strategy that's been on display in the days since the start of the war, was killed in an air strike at his daughter’s home near Tehran along with his son, deputy and bodyguards.
Drawing a parallel with the death of the former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the opening day of the US-Israel-launched military offensive on February 28, Araghchi said, "Even the (Supreme) Leader was martyred, yet the system continued its work," he said.
Speaking to the Doha-based news channel, Araghchi held the US responsible for the conflict in the Middle East, adding that Washington must be held accountable for the human and economic losses.
The Iranian foreign minister added that Iran's stance against the development of nuclear weapons will not significantly change. But he cautioned that Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has not yet expressed his view on the matter.
Blockade on Strait of HormuzAraghchi urged Middle Eastern countries to draft a new protocol for the Strait of Hormuz after the war ends. He said that such a protocol could ensure safe passage through the narrow waterway without harming Iranian and regional interests. Iran's parliament speaker tweeted that the Strait of Hormuz' situation won't return to its pre-war conditions. This came after US forces carried out strikes on Iranian missile sites along the country’s southern coastline near the Strait of Hormuz, using multiple 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, according to the US Central Command. |
