Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned in Baghdad on Sunday that Tehran has ‘no red lines’ when it comes to ‘defending’ its people and interests, after Israel vowed to retaliate for its recent missile attack. ‘While we have made considerable efforts in recent days to avoid a full-scale war in our region, I am making it clear that we have no red lines in defending our people and our interests,’ the minister wrote on the X website upon his arrival in Baghdad.
On October 1, Iran launched about 200 missiles at Israel in response to the assassination in Tehran of the leader of Palestinian Hamas, blamed on Israel, and the deaths of the leader of Lebanese Hezbollah and a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, killed in an Israeli strike near Beirut.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised that his country’s response would be “lethal, precise and surprising,” something Tehran said it was “ready” for.
Mr. Araghchi’s talks are part of “consultations (…) with Muslim countries on the critical s
ituations” in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon “following the genocidal attacks and aggressions of the Israeli regime,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said on X.
His visit aims to “silence the weapons and the violence (…) and to establish security and stability in the region,” said Ali al-Moussaoui, political adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Soudani.
Baghdad is against “an expanded war” with Iran and “use of Iraqi airspace,” said Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein.
Israel is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip after an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on its soil on October 7, 2023.
In the aftermath of this attack, pro-Iranian Hezbollah opened a front against Israel from southern Lebanon, claiming to be acting in support of Hamas.
After more than eleven months of cross-border firefights, the Israeli army intensified its strikes against Hezbollah and then launched a ground offensive against its fighters in southern Lebanon on September 30.
After Ba
ghdad, the head of Iranian diplomacy is going to Oman, according to the Iranian news agency Isna.
On Thursday, Mr Araghchi visited Qatar and the day before Saudi Arabia. He had previously visited Lebanon and Syria.
Source: Burkina Information Agency