Iran says no country has offered assistance in its war against Israel and the US, but Tehran is not relying on other countries as it is prepared to fight the war on its own.
This was confirmed by Iranian ambassador to South Africa, Mansour Shakib Mehr, during a media briefing on the state of the war in Iran, in which the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior officials were killed.
Also, the attacks by Israeli and US troops resulted in the deaths of almost 170 children from an elementary school at Minab in southern Iran, in what Mehr described as a “dangerous and unprecedented violation of international norms” and clear breach of the United Nations charter.
Iran ambassador says no country has offered military assistance
Asked whether any of its allies such as Russia, China or North Korea had pledged any military assistance in case the war escalate, or whether Tehran would approach them for help, the ambassador said no country had come forward with any offer, but any offer would be considered.
“We have not asked any of the countries for assistance. We believe that we can defend ourselves,” Mehr said.
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“If there is any country with a suggestion, it will be considered.”
He denied claims Iran was funding the ANC and South Africa’s genocide case at International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague.
“These rumours of funding the ANC were raised by the same parties in South Africa. They want to demonise what South Africa is doing at the ICJ,” Mehr said.
Rumours of Iran funding ANC and ICJ case denied
“We did not even know when the ANC raised the case against Israel at the ICJ, it was by the South African government, but we are grateful that it did.”
He said Iran and South Africa shared common points and interests on international affairs and both are members of the Brics and the non-aligned movement and other multilateral bodies.
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They have strong relations and expected all countries to make peace and put pressure on the US to stop its attacks because “we have been betrayed once again in these negotiations”.
Regarding its retaliation and attacks on US military bases in some of the neighbouring countries in the Middle East, Mehr said: “It is our right to attack the same place that we received attack from. I also need to say that we are not attacking our neighbours’ soils, we retaliate to the US military bases and places of their hide out.”
He reiterated Iran was not and has never been the initiator of war, but “our principled policy is based on our good neighbourliness and regional stability”.
Iran not initiator of war – ambassador
The retaliation was not against those countries or their people but was aimed at the “Zionist regime and US”.
“We targeted the US military bases because they are legitimate targets, not our neighbour. We respect the sovereignty of our neighbours,” he said.
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As proof that some countries understood Iran’s reasons for retaliating, despite the fact that the US base in Qatar was also attacked, the ministers of Iran and Qatar had a friendly telephone conversation about the war situation.
Mehr said according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, America had entered the war out of choice on behalf of Israel.
“There is never any so-called Iranian threat to the US at all,” he said.
Never a threat to US – Iran
Iran had asked South Africa, among others, to evacuate its nationals from the war zone and Mehr indicated the department of international relations and cooperation was busy taking steps to address the matter to ensure South Africans were safe.
He said they suspected one of the reasons the US attacked Iran was to cover up the Epstein files.
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Iran had had the highest level of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. Inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities were ongoing until the military aggression last June.
Once again, the US and Israel attacks came in the midst of the talks which the US initiated.
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