Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi has said in a letter to the UN that Tehran would hold the US responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities.
The letter was a response to recent media reports that said Israel was preparing for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Sources told CNN that the attack could come if Israel isn’t happy with a negotiated deal between the US and Iran or if Israel wants to sabotage an agreement from ever being reached.
“Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime of Israel and will decisively respond to any threat or unlawful act by this regime,” Aragchi said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi.
“We are likewise of the firm conviction that — in the event of any attack against the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime — the government of the United States shall bear legal responsibility, having been complicit therein,” Aragchi said.
The Iranian diplomat called on the “international community to take effective preventive measures against the continuation of Israeli threats, which if unchecked, will compel Iran to take special measures in defense of our nuclear facilities and materials.”
Iranian officials have previously said Iran could suspend IAEA inspections of its civilian nuclear program or move enriched uranium to undisclosed locations in response to an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Aragchi’s letter comes a day before the US and Iran are set to hold another round of nuclear talks in Rome. The two sides have been at odds over the US’s demands for Iran to eliminate its nuclear enrichment program altogether, which Iranian officials have made clear is a non-starter, but the negotiations have continued.
Despite all the hype about Iran’s nuclear program, US intelligence agencies have recently reaffirmed there’s no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 ban on the development of weapons of mass destruction.
