Iran says no room for ceasefire talks while military attacks continue
Iran said on Monday there was no room to discuss a ceasefire while military attacks by the United States and Israel continue.
Iran said on Monday there was no room to discuss a ceasefire while military attacks by the United States and Israel continue.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Iran did not start the war and that it had been in negotiations when the conflict began.
“We are in the eleventh day of military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime. We did not start this war,” he said at a news conference.
“Military aggression is ongoing and therefore in this situation there is little place to talk about anything other than defense and a crushing response to the enemy,” he added, saying all of Iran’s focus is currently on defending the country.
Iran denies drone attacks on Azerbaijan, Turkey and Cyprus
Baghaei also denied on Monday that Iranian armed forces launched drones or missiles toward Azerbaijan, Turkey or Cyprus, as regional tensions spill beyond its borders.
He said Iran’s defense actions “should in no way be interpreted as hostility toward any of the countries in the region,” adding that the armed forces’ general staff had “explicitly and officially announced that such launches were not carried out from inside Iran or by our military forces.”
His remarks follow accusations by Azerbaijan that four drones crossed into its Nakhchivan exclave, striking the airport terminal and exploding near a school, injuring civilians.
President Ilham Aliyev called the incident an “act of terror,” demanded an explanation and apology from Tehran, and ordered the withdrawal of Azerbaijani diplomatic staff from Iran.
Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi denied that Tehran launched drones toward Nakhchivan and told his Azerbaijani counterpart that Iran “denies any drone launch toward that republic,” according to state media.
He said Iran’s armed forces were investigating the reported explosions and accused Israel of seeking to disrupt relations between Muslim countries to harm Iran’s ties with its neighbors.
Turkey has said NATO air defenses intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile that entered Turkish airspace last week. Ankara protested to Tehran and has deployed F-16 fighter jets to Northern Cyprus as a precautionary security measure.
Cyprus has also reported a drone strike on a British base on the island, which it said was likely launched by Iran-backed Hezbollah rather than directly from Iran.
The threat was issued in a statement by the Office of the Prosecutor General, which said such cooperation, if deemed harmful to national security, could bring confiscation of all assets and other legal penalties.
The statement cited Article 1 of a law passed in October that increased penalties for espionage and cooperation with Israel and other countries deemed hostile to Iran’s national security and interests.
Under that law, operational or intelligence activities carried out on behalf of Israel, the United States or other “hostile” governments or groups can lead to the confiscation of all assets and the death penalty, the statement said.
The warning came after some members of the Iranian diaspora seeking change in Tehran gathered in cities across Europe and the United States to celebrate the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the US-Israeli war against Iran.
At the same time, newly created Telegram channels have published details about prominent Iranians abroad who criticized Iran’s clerical establishment and backed the US-Israeli airstrikes that began on February 28.
Between 5 million and 10 million Iranians are estimated to live abroad, mostly in the United States and Western Europe, according to Iranian official data and domestic media reports.
