IRANIAN Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned the United States that his country is ready for war if Washington wants to “test” it, after US President Donald Trump threatened to take military action in response to Iran’s crackdown on antigovernment protests.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Monday, Araghchi said channels of communication with the US were open amid the ongoing unrest but stressed that his country was “prepared for all options”, claiming that Iran now has “large and extensive military preparedness” compared to last year’s 12-day war.
His comments follow Trump’s remarks on Sunday, amid nationwide protests in Iran sparked by economic woes that have intensified into broader calls for systemic change. The US president had said he was considering “strong options” for Iran over its leadership’s crackdown on protests, including potential military action.
Trump, who recently ordered the abduction of leftist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a US Special Forces intervention, said that a meeting was being set up with Tehran to negotiate on its nuclear programme, “but we may have to act because of what is happening before the meeting”.
“If Washington wants to test the military option it has tested before, we are ready for it,” said Araghchi, adding that he hoped the US would choose “the wise option” of dialogue, while warning of “those trying to drag Washington into war in order to serve Israel’s interests”.
In the interview, Araghchi alluded to the growing death toll, repeating earlier assertions that “terrorist elements” had “infiltrated the crowds of protesters and targeted security forces and demonstrators”. Iran has blamed the US and Israel for provoking unrest in the country over the past two weeks.
More than 100 security personnel have been killed in recent days, state media has reported, while opposition activists say the death toll is higher and includes hundreds of protesters. Al Jazeera has been unable to independently verify the figures.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday. The foreign minister had said on Monday that the service would be resumed in coordination with security services. Monitor NetBlocks said at 16:29 GMT on Monday that Iran had been offline for 96 hours.
Araghchi told Al Jazeera Arabic that his communications with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had “continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing”. He said that ideas that had been discussed with Washington were being studied in Tehran.
However, he added, “Washington’s proposed ideas and threats against our country are incompatible.”
“We are ready to sit at the nuclear negotiating table, provided that it is without threats or dictates,” said Araghchi, questioning whether Washington was “ready for fair and just negotiations”.
“When it is ready, we will seriously consider the matter,” he said.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday that the US military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington intervened in the current unrest, warning Washington of a “miscalculation”.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt accused Iran of sending “quite different” messages to the US in private, compared to its public statements, in an interview with the Fox News programme America Reports on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the White House was weighing Iran’s offer to engage in further military talks, even as Trump mulled strikes on the country.
The US last year bombed Iranian nuclear sites when it joined Israel’s 12-day war with Iran.