Iran affirms missile attacks to continue, US talks ‘not on agenda'

TEHRAN (AFP): Iran’s foreign minister said Tuesday that talks with the United States were not on the agenda as their war entered its 11th day.

“I don’t think talking with the Americans would be on our agenda anymore,” Abbas Araghchi told PBS News, saying Tehran had a “very bitter experience” during previous negotiations with the US.

On February 28, the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and triggered a war that has spread across the Middle East.

The Israeli and US attacks took place two days before Washington and Tehran were scheduled to hold talks following three prior rounds of negotiations. Omani mediators in those discussions had said there was “significant progress” in the talks.

Iran has responded to the US-Israeli attacks with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and US interests across the region.

Shipping traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil usually transits, has been severely disrupted.

Iranian forces have repeatedly targeted oil tankers passing through the strategic waterway since the war began.

In the interview with PBS News, Araghchi insisted that Iran was acting in “self-defence”.

“We are prepared, we have been prepared to continue attacking them with our missiles as long as needed and as long as it takes,” he said.

Late Monday, Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said some countries in the region and elsewhere had reached out to Iran to push for a ceasefire.

“China, Russia and France, and even some countries in the region, are in contact with us,” he told state TV.

“Some of them are willing to do something to stop this war or establish a ceasefire.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and its allies are preparing a “defensive” mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Gharibabadi said Iran “did not start the aggression and the war… we are defending ourselves”.