WANA (Aug 18) – Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that efforts to force Iran into “unconditional surrender” failed, stressing that Tehran ultimately entered the ceasefire and negotiations from a position of strength.

 

Araghchi said Iran resisted for several days during the war against what he described as the world’s “largest conventional military,” as well as another force that also claimed to be powerful, despite broad support from Western countries and some countries in the region and beyond.

 

He said those who had initially sought Iran’s “unconditional surrender” called for negotiations only a short time after the war began. According to Araghchi, Iran rejected a ceasefire at that stage and continued fighting until the other side ultimately agreed to a ceasefire and negotiations based on Iran’s terms.

 

The foreign minister also said that Iran “fought with strength” and entered the negotiations from the same position. Referring to the views of some of his foreign counterparts, he said several foreign ministers had told him that Iran had “won both the war and the diplomacy.”

 

Araghchi also described the killing of Iran’s late leader, along with the deaths of students and teachers at the Shajareh Tayebeh School in Minab, as events that had become lasting symbols of the war.