US, Israel crossed ‘big red line’, Iran FM says as he heads to Moscow for Putin meeting
Iran’s top diplomat calls US strikes a ‘grave crime’, vows Iran will defend itself ‘by all means necessary’
“They crossed a very big red line by attacking (Iran’s) nuclear facilities,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul.
He was speaking just hours after President Donald Trump said US warplanes struck three Iranian nuclear sites, nine days into an Israeli bombing campaign targeting its nuclear facilities.
“The most dangerous one happened only last night,” Araghchi said, while acknowledging he did not know the full extent of the damage done in the strikes, including one at the underground uranium enrichment facility at Fordow.
“I still do not have exact information about the level of damages, but I don’t think it matters... Last night’s attack was a grave crime,” he said.
“Through this action, the United States has dealt a serious blow to international peace and security,” he said, vowing that Iran would defend itself “by all means necessary against... US military aggression”.