FM: Iran Ready to Fight Back           01/08 06:18

   

   BEIRUT (AP) -- Iran does not want war with Israel or the United States, but 
is ready to fight back if attacked again, the country's foreign minister said 
Thursday.

   Speaking upon arrival in Beirut, Abbas Araghchi told reporters that Iran is 
also ready for negotiations with the U.S. over its nuclear program as long as 
the talks are based on mutual respect rather than "dictation" by Washington.

   Araghchi's comments came as many fear that close U.S. ally Israel will 
target Iran again as it did during the 12-day war it launched against Tehran in 
June. Israel killed a slew of top military officials and nuclear scientists, 
and the U.S. bombed Iranian nuclear enrichment sites.

   "America and Israel have tested their attack on Iran and this attack and 
strategy faced extreme failure," the Iranian official said in Beirut 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.

   In February, U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed a "maximum pressure" 
campaign on Iran in an effort to block its development of nuclear weapons. The 
campaign included U.S. led strikes on three critical Iranian enrichment 
facilities in June.

   Araghchi said Tehran is ready for "negotiations 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 the these negotiations become fruitful," he said.

   Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity -- a short, technical step 
from weapons-grade levels -- after Trump unilaterally withdrew the United 
States from Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. Tehran long 
has maintained its atomic program is peaceful, though the West and the IAEA, 
the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program 
until 2003.

   In late December, Trump warned Iran that the U.S. could carry out further 
military strikes if the country attempts to reconstitute its nuclear program as 
he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.