Amir Abdollahian: We will strongly respond to any targeting of Iranian forces in Syria

According to the report of Fars News Agency International Group, Iran’s Foreign Minister “Hossein Amirabdollahian” warned that we will strongly respond to any targeting of Iranian forces in Syria.

Iranian foreign minister added: “Hezbollah is a resistance movement against Israeli occupation in the region and has an independent and Lebanese identity and does not take orders from Iran”.

The full text of the interview of Foreign Minister Dr. Amir Abdollahian with the Financial Times newspaper is as follows:

Question: Thank you for your time. I will start my first question about America. Is the Islamic Republic interested in entering into direct negotiations with the United States regarding Gaza?

Answer: I think the Gaza issue is an issue that comes back to the Palestinian groups and they are the main side of this story. are. Therefore, to basically say that Iran and the United States will enter into a direct dialogue about the developments in Gaza, maybe it is not a very accurate question.

Question: But as a country that focuses on Palestinian groups in the region Your interpretation is that the resistance-oriented groups have influence, the dialogue between Iran and the US can help reduce tensions?

Answer: Between us and the Americans through the Office of the Protection of American Interests in Tehran, which is the Swiss Embassy. Regarding the issue of Palestinian developments, messages have been exchanged in the past 40 days. The Americans have conveyed some points through this diplomatic channel and we have responded to them through this channel. ?

Answer: In the first weeks and days of the war, the Americans tried to convey the message that they do not seek to expand the scope of the war and asked Iran to exercise restraint. Also, in similar messages to Beirut, they asked Hezbollah to exercise restraint, but it (that is, America) completely sided with the Israeli regime; He did not hesitate to send all the military facilities and weapons that the Israeli regime needed and thus increased the intensity of the war. America itself did not remain committed to the non-development of the war and openly pursued the issue of increasing the intensity of the war, killing and genocide against the people of Gaza and the West Bank. Of course, in response to America, we said in a message that Iran does not seek to expand the war, but with the approach that America and the occupying regime of Israel have in the region, if the war crimes against the people of Gaza and the West Bank are not stopped, any possibility is conceivable and the expansion The scope of the war could be inevitable.

Question: Did the Americans, in their messages to Iran, threaten that if Hezbollah enters a wider war with Israel, can they attack Iran?

Answer: We did not receive such a message.

Question: Do Did America’s messages have an effect on Hizbollah not entering into a wider war with Israel?

Answer: Naturally, America’s message has the opposite effect on Hizbollah. Not only does America’s message not make Hezbollah cautious in its decision, but with the knowledge we have of Hezbollah, they become more determined about their own actions and decide head on. The reality on the scene is that Hezbollah has entered a stage of war with Israel today, and what actions Hezbollah will take and what other steps it will follow in the coming hours and days is something that comes back to Hezbollah’s decision. Not to America’s message to Hezbollah.

Question: Apart from the Swiss channel that you mentioned, were there other channels such as Oman and Qatar through which America conveyed its message to Iran?

Answer: It doesn’t really matter what channel it was; The message is important. For us, the Swiss channel is an official diplomatic channel because it is the office of protection of American interests.

Question: And this is the most important channel for you?

Answer: It is the most official channel for us.

Question: Does this crisis that has arisen destroy the possibilities and hopes that arose after the exchange of prisoners? Iran and the United States – that more de-escalation measures should be taken – has destroyed and Iran and the United States cannot enter another stage from this stage?

Answer: Naturally, the current situation in the region, The genocide in Gaza, the widespread sending of even prohibited weapons and phosphorous from American bases in the region for the use of the Zionist regime, have various consequences in the region. But during this time, we have not exchanged a message with each other regarding the previous indirect talks with America. Because the issue of Palestine and the action taken by Hamas against the occupation was so shocking for America and Israel that I think all the energy of America today is focused on the case of the Israeli regime.

Question: Is Iran’s energy the same?

Answer: The resistance groups in the region as a genuine and rooted movement to their efforts and actions to deal with They continue to occupy; Naturally, one of our main priorities is to strive for stability and security in the region, and from this direction, war, violence, aggression and genocide in the region is an important issue that not only Iran and not only America, but all the countries of the region, but an important part It has targeted the active countries of the world.

Question: America says it has targeted the places used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in eastern Syria; Do you confirm that the places used by Iran’s military forces have been targeted by the United States?

Answer: There are groups in Syria and in Iraq who, due to the policies of America’s mistake in the past years in the region and due to the formation of these groups in the fight against ISIS, they have an identity, an identity in their own country and land; They decide based on their own interests and based on the information that the American side publishes, in this period of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the joint genocide of the Israelis with the support of the Americans in Gaza, these groups spontaneously attack some American targets. have given. America claims that these are related to Iran. We do not have any representative group in the region; We do not have any representative groups in Syria and Iraq. These are the groups that make their own decisions and act on their own. Of course, America has claimed that these groups are related to Iran, and for this reason, they have attacked targets in Syria in two stages and claimed that these targets belong to the IRGC. Pasdaran of Iran or belongs to Iran. I know one of these targets when they attacked; There has been a place that in the past our military advisers used in the fight against terrorism, along with the forces of that country, but this place lacked any forces and facilities at the time of the American attack.

Question: Has anyone from the Iranian forces been killed in these attacks?

Answer: According to the news that I have so far, someone from the Iranian forces has been hit. It has not been decided, and of course, if such an event happens, Iran’s response will be difficult.

Question: Is the sending of American ships to the eastern Mediterranean waters a big threat to Iran? Because the analysis is that this is a sign of giving a thumbs up to Iran and that America has this ability.

Answer: I am not a military man, but military strategists believe that the arrival of American ships near Our region and the availability of these ships is not America’s strength, but it increases the damage rate of these ships in any possibility.

Question: It means the militia groups that are in the region , can they attack these ships?

Answer: You should ask such questions to the military.

Question: So on this account If Hezbollah wants to attack Israel more and America considers that Hezbollah is Iran’s proxy group, then our response or Israel should be to Iran, what will Iran’s response be?

Answer: Israel is America’s proxy group, but we don’t have any proxy group in the region. Hezbollah is a movement of resistance against the occupation regime of Israel, it has an independent identity, it is Lebanese, it does not take orders from Iran, but it has a good relationship with Iran.

Question: What you say is not Politicians agree and not the military; Let’s assume that the other side does not accept what you say, and if Hezbollah wants to increase its attacks on Israel and Israel wants to give its answer to Iran, what will Iran’s reaction be?

Answer: Whenever Hizbullah decides to increase the intensity of its operations in the occupied territories, it decides and acts directly.

Question: When You are meeting with Hamas or Hezbollah, what is your message to these groups?

Answer: Naturally, because of the relationship we have with these groups, about the role of these groups in helping the security of the region. We provide political support. In our meetings, we receive their assessments according to the situation in the region, and of course we share with them the ideas that the Islamic Republic of Iran pursues for peace, stability and security in the region.

Question: But what is your advice to these groups? Is this advice not to enter this war? For example, do you advise Hezbollah not to enter this war? What do you say to the Hashd al-Shaabi and the Houthis?

Answer: We do not give any advice to any of the groups that are present in the region; These are either like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad against Israeli and occupier aggressions, or groups like Hashd al-Shaabi or groups in Syria have acted against ISIS and ensured the security of their country. We have not issued any advice or orders to them and we never will; They make decisions based on their own interests, but if these groups were created in Syria and Iraq, it was because of the growth of ISIS in Iraq and to fight against ISIS and terrorism; But these groups are not indifferent to the killing of their fellow Muslims and Arabs in Palestine, to the genocide in Palestine, to the continuing crimes of the Israeli regime in Palestine. We take responsibility for our own actions with openness and transparency; In response to the assassination of General Soleimani, we fired 13 ballistic missiles at the American base in Ain al-Assad and officially accepted the responsibility. This is important, why doesn’t Iran enter the war and help Hamas?

Answer: Because its resistance is highly capable; You will see that in the phase of entering the ground war, the fate of the war will be determined by the resistance inside Gaza. Despite the killing of more than 14,500 civilians, despite the many crimes committed in this genocide, the resistance has just entered the stage of action.

Question: Are the resistance groups you meet with? Are they asking you to go to war?

Answer: No; They say that they have so many facilities and have preserved their forces for the day that the Israeli regime enters into a ground war, which in their opinion is just the beginning of a real confrontation. The Israeli regime has only bombarded with American facilities and with its own weapons, but in recent days the battle scene has changed and now the opportunity for a confrontational war between the Palestinian resistance forces and the Israeli regime forces has been provided. This confrontation is what the resistance forces have been waiting for for weeks.

Question: Does this mean that a new turning point in the war has been created? Do you consider this to be in the interest of Hamas?

Answer: The Palestinian resistance considers this stage to be in its favor and believes that a ground war means the grounding of the Israeli regime, and we see that in the past days More than 80 advanced Israeli tanks and Israeli bulldozers have been destroyed in the attacks of the resistance forces. According to the assessment provided by the resistance forces, this is a start; Therefore, the resistance forces and Palestinian resistance groups still have high capabilities, both in terms of human resources and equipment and facilities; They have not asked us to enter the war. They themselves have a high ability.

Question: What about the request for missiles and drones?

Answer: They have everything and produce it themselves.

Question: Does Hamas produce itself? Where?

Answer: I don’t know the details, but the Palestinian resistance has the necessary capabilities to produce the weapons it needs. Some believe that the vast aid of the West to Ukraine provided a smuggling under the name of arms smuggling, which these agents of arms smuggling that had to enter Ukraine, provided the conditions for buying and selling arms in other regions. Maybe the Palestinian resistance forces were able to get some of these weapons.

Question: Before it reaches Ukraine?

Answer : I don’t know the details, but it seems that the war in Ukraine has provided a large market for buying and selling and smuggling arms in the world.

Answer: Since you say that the arrival of Israeli and Gaza ground forces has created a new opportunity for Hamas and a new turning point has been created, does this mean that we will see a long war of attrition in Gaza?

Answer: I think the Israeli regime cannot afford a war of attrition. Today, the Israeli regime is facing multi-layered crises from within. These multi-layered crises are not related to October 7, they are related to before October 7. But the morning of Saturday, October 7, and Hamas’ liberation operation showed that Israel’s security system has collapsed in general. Isn’t it in Israel’s interest?

Answer: Naturally, when a group acts as a guerilla, a long war is usually in the interest of the group that acts as a guerilla, but not in the interest of a classical army.

Question: Can we conclude that the strategy of the resistance groups is a war of attrition in Gaza?

Answer: I think that according to the situation that exists: firstly, in the Arab world there is a common sense of concern and threat from Israel for everyone; For this reason, you can see that the countries that have normalized their relations with the Israeli regime, both their governments are extremely worried about the situation that has occurred and their nations are strongly anti-Israel, and these crimes that Israel committed in the past 40 days have no excuse for Israel has not left; The Israeli who used to shed crocodile tears for others is known today as an executioner; Of course, the Jews in Israel and the residents of the occupied territories are becoming victims of Netanyahu’s policies. Netanyahu’s war with Gaza has also taken on a personal dimension. According to some Jewish thinkers, Netanyahu is neither a man of peace nor a man of war, but he is collapsing the foundations of the occupation regime of Israel, and don’t doubt that according to the ideas that exist inside the occupied territories, if the war stops today, Netanyahu will fall tomorrow. Is; Therefore, Netanyahu has a personal motivation to continue this war and killing, they have done everything they could in the last 40 days: bombing, using phosphorus bombs, using prohibited weapons, massacring women and children, attacking hospitals, killing at least 50 journalists who were your collaborators and killed more than 4400 children; Now the page of Israeli crimes is filling up, so time is not in Israel’s favor.

Question: Regarding the ceasefire, is it possible to stop the war in order to exchange Israeli prisoners?

Answer: A political initiative has been on the table for about three weeks. In the second week of the war, when I was traveling in the region, the idea was raised that measures should be taken to release the civilian prisoners of the Israeli regime; We had consultations with the Qatari authorities. Even I addressed this issue in my meeting with Mr. Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, and finally our consultations turned into a meeting with Mr. Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas; In that meeting, the idea of ​​releasing the civilian prisoners in Gaza was raised and the political leader of Hamas declared his agreement with this issue; This was the beginning of an initiative that friends in Qatar tried to make this initiative come to fruition and later developed to exchange with some of the Palestinian women and children captured in regime prisons and lead to the reopening of the Rafah border to send humanitarian aid. . But I said today in a conversation with the officials of the Red Cross and the United Nations in Geneva that really the conclusion of Hamas is that Israel is not looking to release and exchange prisoners, because if it had done this three weeks ago, some of these prisoners would have been in Israel’s own bombings did not kill. Israel is playing with time, and as a result, despite Hamas’s preparation, they make dramatic moves; At the same time as I was in Geneva, I was informed that the foreign minister of the Israeli regime was also here with some of the families of these prisoners and was trying. There was no need to come to Geneva at all. Since three weeks ago, everything is ready for the exchange of civilian prisoners. But it is the Israeli side that does not accept.

Question: Do you want a complete cessation of war or is the temporary cessation that some countries have proposed acceptable?

Answer: We did not discuss how to stop with Hamas. Of course, Hamas seeks to take this excuse from the occupying regime and show that it has the necessary flexibility for a humanitarian movement and the release of civilian prisoners, but it is the Israeli side that is playing with time and shows serious will. This relationship has not been shown.

Question: Do you know where the prisoners are kept?

Answer: No

Question: In the first weeks, the fear of spreading the war in the region was clearly felt. Have we passed this stage now?

Answer: Based on my personal assessment, the scope of the war in the region has begun to expand. The fact that the Yemeni army makes an official statement and targets the occupied territories with missiles and drones is a sign of the beginning of the war, or the fact that Hezbollah is currently involved with a third of the Israeli army. It is the beginning of the expansion stage of the war. However, the region has not yet entered the intensification of the scope of the war. Any possibility is envisaged in case of failure to reach a political plan and stop the war. What is seen now is more the beginning of the expansion of the scope of the war and a kind of warning, and with the continuation of the war, the possibility of its development has increased. It was faced, now it is out? In other words, has the Gaza war benefited Iran in this regard?

Answer: Iran was not in political isolation last year. At that time, the United States and some western countries tried to throw Iran into chaos by claiming the death of an Iranian girl. Also, more than one and a half million Palestinians displaced by the Gaza war have remained silent. They did not take any action in the Security Council and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. The question is, isn’t the massacre of 14,500 women and children a shocking issue? Who would believe that the tragic death of an Iranian girl would be met with so much reaction, but the massacre of Palestinian women and children would be met with silence from the same countries? Aren’t Palestinian women and children human?

A high-ranking European official told me on the sidelines of a meeting in the first week of the war that my grandson asks me why our policy in Ukraine and Palestine It is completely opposite and I did not have an answer for this double standard that would convince my grandson. We were not isolated last year. Rather, we witnessed the peak of foreign interference and they used the death of an Iranian girl as an excuse to pursue their political goals; But a few weeks later, that wave subsided completely.

Question: Last year in Iran, there was a very negative attitude towards Saudi Arabia, but this year Mr. Raisi and Mr. Mohammed bin Salman and al-Sisi had a meeting. Has the war in Gaza narrowed the gap between Iran and the Arab countries?

Answer: We do not believe that if we interacted with several European countries, then it is a sign of non-isolation. And if we don’t have it, it is a sign of isolation. Now the world is much wider and more diverse than the scope in your and my mind. We were not isolated last year, nor have we found a much newer situation this year, and of course there have been openings in cooperation with the region and neighbors, including the return of Iran-Saudi relations to a normal state in our foreign policy.

Question: What is your prediction of the continuation of the war?

Answer: Predicting the war is not an easy task for me as a diplomat; But I can say that Israeli prisoners will not be freed by war with Hamas. Based on the knowledge and the meetings we had with the leaders of the region and the resistance movement, the fate of this war will be decided by the resistance and not by Israel. I can already predict that as on October 7, the Israeli security system collapsed; Netanyahu continued to fall and is now alive with American artificial respiration, but he will soon be removed from the Israeli political arena. I can say with certainty that based on the information provided by the resistance; The winner of this war is not Israel, but the resistance and Palestine. Prisoners can be released only through diplomacy.

Question: Can this be done through a complete cessation of war or a temporary cessation of war?

Answer: This issue depends on the opinion of the main parties, especially Hamas. Diplomacy can free the prisoners, but there is no will on the part of the Israeli regime for this.

Question: Will Iran play a role in this diplomacy for the release of the prisoners?

Answer: We have discussed with Hamas regarding the release of civilian prisoners and they have expressed their agreement to both us and Qatar.

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