‘We need to continue fighting for the sake of our people’

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Middle East, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that his country needs “to continue fighting for the sake of our people.”

The U.S. and Israel “are killing our people, they are killing girl students, you know they are attacking hospitals,” he told moderator Kristen Welker.

He said Israel and the U.S. had already shattered the ceasefire reached to end last year’s 12-day war, adding, “And now you want to ask for a ceasefire again? This doesn’t work like this.”

“There needs to be a permanent end to the war,” Araghchi said. “Unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security.”

On Friday, four sources told NBC News that Russia was providing intelligence to Iran on the location of U.S. forces in the Middle East, including intelligence that could help Iran locate American warships.

Pressed on whether Iran is receiving Russian support, Araghchi said that “cooperation between Iran and Russia is not something new, it’s not a secret.” He did not say whether Russian intelligence was helping Iran locate U.S. military assets.

“They are helping us in many different directions, I don’t have any detailed information,” he said.

On Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would no longer attack neighboring Gulf nations unless they facilitated U.S. or Israeli attacks, and apologized to the region after Iranian strikes killed people in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman.

But Araghchi said Iran had not been “attacking our neighbors” intentionally.

“We are attacking American bases, American installations, American assets, which are unfortunately located in the soils of our neighbors,” he said.

Araghchi added that Pezeshkian had apologized to the people of the region for “the inconveniences they have faced because of this aggression by the United States and retaliation by us.”

The Iranian minister also said that if the U.S. deploys ground troops to Iran, “we have very brave soldiers who are waiting for any enemy who enters into our soil, to fight with them and to kill them and destroy them.”

President Donald Trump said last week that one of the reasons for launching the war was that Iran would soon have missiles capable of reaching the U.S., but Araghchi said this was untrue.

“This is not true,” he said. “This is in fact, misinformation. You know, we have capability to produce missiles but we have intentionally limited ourselves to below 2000 kilometers of range because we don’t want to be felt as a threat by anybody else in the world.”

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has chosen a new supreme leader after strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to Iranian state media, but Araghchi refused to be drawn on who was set to replace him.

“Nobody knows,” he said. “There are lots of rumors around. But you know, we have to wait for the assembly of experts to convene.”

Pressed on comments made by Trump, who has said he wanted to be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader, Araghchi said Iran will “allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs.”

“This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader,” he said. “They have already elected the Assembly of Experts, and the Assembly of Experts will do the job.”