Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told ABC News on Sunday that no country’s leader has the right to tell Iran not to respond to the sort of strikes carried out against it by the United States when asked about an overnight social media post from President Donald Trump that said that Iran should not retaliate.
Trump had written on his social media platform early on Sunday, “Iran just stated that they are going to hit very hard today, harder than they have ever hit before. THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”
“I don’t think any leader of a country has the right to say so. No. We are defending ourselves, and we have every right, every legitimate right, to defend ourselves, Araghchi told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “What we are doing is the act of self-defense. There are huge differences between these two.”
“So one should tell, you know, the president of the United States, ‘Do not attack. Do not make any aggression against another country.’ But nobody can tell us that you don’t have any right to defend yourselves,” Araghchi added. “We are defending ourselves; whatever it takes; and we see no limit for ourselves to defend our people, to protect our people.”
Asked by Stephanopoulos how much damage the attacks have done on Iranian military infrastructure, Araghchi said, “Well, we have lost some commanders, that is a fact, and the names are already announced. But another fact is that nothing has changed in our military capability.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
