Araghchi: Recent riots linked to Israeli plots
Tehran - BORNA - In an interview on Fox News' "Special Report with Brett Baier" Wednesday evening, Araghchi was told estimates have indicated the death toll in his country could be anywhere between 2,500 to more than 12,000 protesters. But, according to the top Iranian official, the number is in the hundreds.
"When terrorist elements led from outside, entered this, you know, protests and started to shoot, you know, police forces, police officers and security forces. And there were terrorist cells. They came in, they used Daesh-style terrorist operations. They got police officers, burned them alive, they beheaded them, and they started shooting at police officers and also to the people. So as a result, for three days, we had, in fact, fighting against terrorists, and not with the protesters," Araghchi said. "It was completely a different story."
According to Araghchi, these rogue, terrorist-like actors he spoke of started shooting at civilians for "one reason," which he said was to draw the United States into the conflict.
"They wanted to increase the number of deaths. Why? Because President Trump has said that if there are killings, he would intervene. And they wanted to drag him into this conflict," the Iranian Foreign Minister continued. "And that was exactly an Israeli plot. They started to increase the number of deaths by killing ordinary people, by killing police officers, by starting a kind of, you know, fighting inside the different cities."
Araghchi also stressed that the situation is now calm.
"We are in full control," Araghchi added. "And let's, you know, hope that wisdom would prevail. And we don't go for a high level of tension, which could be disastrous for everybody."
The Iranian Foreign Minister added: “Although we do not have positive experience with Washington, diplomacy is better than war.”
He said, “It is the United States, that has always escaped from diplomacy and has chosen the war.”
In response to a question about his message to the US President Donald Trump, the top Iranian diplomat said, “Do not repeat the mistake you did in June. You know that if you try a failed experience, you will get the same result. You destroyed installations and machines, but you can not bombard the technology, determination and will.”
On June 13, Israel launched an unprovoked aggression against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that killed at least 1,064 people in the country, including military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians. The United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran’s armed forces responded by striking strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military facility in West Asia.
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