Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, speaks during a press conference at the Lutfi Krdar Congress Center on the sideline of the 51st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in Istanbul on June 22, 2025.
Ozan Kose | Afp | Getty Images
Iran’s foreign minister said Thursday that his country is “not asking for a ceasefire” from the United States and Israel, “and we don’t see any reason why we should negotiate” after nearly a week of war.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also said in an exclusive interview with NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas that Iran is “confident” that it can confront the U.S. military if President Donald Trump decides to invade the nation with ground troops.
“And that would be a big disaster for them,” Araghchi told NBC Nightly News.
He also said that after six days of war against Iran, “It is clear that the U.S. has failed to achieve its main goal, which was clean, rapid victory.”
“They failed to achieve that, and now they are trying to justify why they did attack us. And they have, you know, presented so many different reasons, but none of them worked,” Araghchi said. “And now they are talking about, you know, plan B. And I, I believe that, you know, plan B would be even a bigger failure.”
Araghchi’s comments indicate Iran is in for a longer war with the U.S. after Trump has said he foresees it lasting four to five weeks. Trump has criticized his Democratic predecessors for engaging in protracted conflicts in the Middle East.
The war “is not our war,” Araghchi said. “This is a war of choice by the United States.”
“We are not asking for a ceasefire, and we don’t see any reason why we should negotiate,” he said.
“Negotiate with the U.S. when we negotiated with them twice, and every time they attacked us in the middle of negotiations?” he asked.
“So there is no request for a ceasefire by us, and there is no request for the negotiation with the U.S. from us.”
Araghchi, when asked why Iran has launched attacks against nearly a dozen neighboring Arab countries during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, said, “We have not attacked our neighbors. We have not attacked Muslim countries.”
“We have attacked Americans targets and American bases, American installations, which are unfortunately located in the soils of our neighbors,” he said. “So we have made it clear for them, I have been in touch with their foreign ministers, and I have explained that ‘we are not targeting you. We have no problem with you. We have only, are only targeting the American installations.'”
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