BEIRUT — Iran does not want war with Israel or the United States, but is ready to fight back if attacked again, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Thursday as ongoing demonstrations sparked by economic woes spread across the Islamic Republic and the regime’s crackdown on the unrest reportedly grew increasingly bloody.
Speaking in Beirut, Araghchi told reporters that Iran is also ready for negotiations with the US over its nuclear program as long as the talks are based on mutual respect rather than “dictation” by Washington.
The minister’s comments came as many fear the potential for renewed war after close US ally Israel bombed Iran during a 12-day conflict in June, which included the killing of senior military officials and nuclear scientists as well as the US bombing of Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.
“America and Israel have tested their attack on Iran and this attack and strategy faced extreme failure,” Araghchi said at the start of a two-day visit to Lebanon. “If they repeat it, they will face the same results.”
“We are ready for any choice. We don’t desire a war but we are ready for it,” Araghchi said.
US President Donald Trump reimposed a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran in February in an effort to block its development of nuclear weapons, which has included sanctions and the US strikes on three critical Iranian enrichment facilities in June.
Araghchi said Tehran is ready for negotiations, adding: “But I say that the negotiations should be based on mutual respect and mutual interests.”
“We believe that once the Americans reach the outcome that constructive and positive negotiations rather than ordering dictation are the framework, then at that time the results of these negotiations become fruitful,” he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visits the shrine of Hezbollah terror chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut’s southern suburbs on January 8, 2026. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels — after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Tehran has long maintained its atomic program is peaceful, though the West and the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.
Trump last month warned Iran that the US could carry out further military strikes if the country attempts to reconstitute its nuclear program, as he held talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.
Araghchi’s visit to Beirut came as the Lebanese military said it had concluded the first phase of a plan to disarm factions, such as Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Iran’s foreign minister headed an economic delegation for talks with Lebanese officials on regional and international affairs.
“Iran desires having comprehensive relations with Lebanon, including economic partnerships,” Araghchi said.
The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
The sides reached a ceasefire in November 2024 following an Israeli ground invasion and concurrent air assault that severely degraded Hezbollah and killed much of its leadership. The accord required both Israel and Hezbollah to vacate southern Lebanon, to be replaced by the LAF, and stipulated that only Lebanon’s state security forces are allowed to carry arms.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
