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 told NBC News in an exclusive interview that Iran is “confident” that it can confront the U.S. military if President Donald Trump decides to invade the nation.
“And that would be a big disaster for them,” Araghchi told NBC.
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.
He said the war “is not our war.”
“This is a war of choice by the United States,” Araghchi said.
“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 said.
“So there is no request for a ceasefire by us, and there is no request for the negotiation with the U.S. from us.”
