NEW DELHI – Iran will never surrender to the “will and whims” of a declining US imperial power, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared Thursday, as he addressed a two-day meeting of BRICS foreign ministers hosted by India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
“It is a fragile reality. Imperial power in decline wants to turn back the clock, and is desperately lashing out on its way down,” Araghchi told the gathering in New Delhi.
The top Iranian diplomat insisted that the Iranian people have “firmly and proudly” stood up against horrific violence, adding, “It ought to be clear that Iran is unbreakable and only emerges stronger and more united when under pressure. While ready to fight with everything we have in defense of our freedom and our soil, we are equally ready to pursue and defend diplomacy.”
Araghchi noted that the United States and Israel carried out two brutal, unlawful, and unjustified acts of aggression against Iran in less than a year, using false claims that contradict the informed assessments of the International Atomic Energy Agency and even America’s own intelligence community.
Like many other independent nations, he emphasized, Iran is the victim of illegal expansionism and warmongering.
“Those who pursue reckless adventures may believe it furthers their geopolitical interests. But as consumers and governments around the world now sense and understand, regional instability is a lose-lose proposition for all sides—including the aggressors,” Araghchi said.
The foreign minister reiterated that despite all pressures, the Iranian nation continues to believe in a free, stable, and just world and has ruled out any military solution to matters concerning Iran.
“We Iranians never bow to any pressure or threat, but we reciprocate the language of respect. As much as our powerful armed forces remain ready to exact devastating retribution on foreign aggressors, my people are peace-loving and do not seek war. We are not the aggressor in this sordid situation, but the aggrieved,” he pointed out.
Araghchi said BRICS symbolizes the emergence of a new global order in which the Global South is a primary architect of the world’s future—an issue that matters deeply to the BRICS+ group, because “the battle Iran has fought is in defense of all of us—of the new world that we are building together.”
He commended BRICS countries for their support and solidarity with Iran in its fight against Western hegemony and stressed the importance of stepping up joint work to end the sense of impunity that the US believes it is entitled to—a notion, he said, that has no place in today’s world.
“History has shown that empires in decline will stop at nothing to arrest their inevitable fates. A wounded animal will desperately claw and roar on its way down,” Araghchi warned, adding that crimes such as horrific genocide, shocking violations of national sovereignty, and outright state piracy on the high seas—met with Western silence—can only take place if there is a sense of impunity.
“That false sense of entitlement must be shattered, by all of us,” the Iranian foreign minister reiterated.
He urged BRICS member states and all responsible members of the international community to explicitly condemn violations of international law by the United States and Israel, prevent the politicization of international institutions, and take concrete action to halt warmongering.
“We believe that BRICS can—and must—become one of the principal pillars in shaping a more just, balanced, and humane global order; an order in which might can never make right. Nations which stand up for their dignity and independence may endure hardship, but they will never be defeated,” he emphasized.
The criminal US-Israeli aggression against Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. In response, Iranian Armed Forces launched daily missile and drone operations targeting locations in Israeli-occupied territories as well as US military bases across the region. Iran also shut down the Strait of Hormuz to enemies and their allies, imposing far stricter controls last month after US President Donald Trump announced an illegal blockade of Iranian vessels and ports—a move Tehran says violated a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire that had taken effect on April 8.
Source: Press TV edited buy Al-manar English website