New interview with Araghchi finds Iranian delusions and vulnerabilities
Iranian journalist Javad Mogooyi has revealed the primary of a multi-part interview with Iranian Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi, recorded ahead of the resumption of hostilities with the US. Araghchi narrates the prelude to the battle, till the ceasefire, which consistent with him represented a strategic victory. Alternatively, alongside the best way, he and Mogooyi supply precious wisdom and intelligence.
Araghchi claims the struggle took place as a result of Tehran rejected concessions that might restrict uranium enrichment, even for a brief length. The host requested why Iran refused to just accept even a short lived concession till President Donald Trump and High Minister Benjamin Netanyahu go away administrative center. Araghchi stated he didn’t need to surrender the “honor of the country” or create a precedent by which the Islamic Republic would make concessions in line with power.
Araghchi stated he didn’t need to surrender the “honor of the country” or create a precedent by which the Islamic Republic would make concessions in line with power.
Araghchi stated he used to be certain the US and Israel would assault Iran. “The military should not put their hopes in me,” he steered. “The negotiations sought to be closed so that no one, nationally or internationally, would say that if they had negotiated there would be no war. We were sure there would be war. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was also behind this tactic.”
Araghchi stated: “We had designs for each scenario,” including: “Why was the Strait of Hormuz closed from day one? Because, from the beginning, it had been agreed that if the supreme leader had been a target, the strait would be closed.” The code title for this state of affairs used to be “Code 110”. He then stated, “We thought there was maybe a 10 percent chance that we could achieve our goals diplomatically, and we should try.”
Araghchi stated that during a gathering along with his opposite numbers attending Ideal Chief Ali Khamenei’s funeral, they agreed that the US and Iran had completed parity. He explains: “The enemy began with ‘unconditional surrender’ and reached a point where both sides acted like superpowers,” particularly after the US “begged” to incorporate the second one article of the Memorandum of Working out, by which all sides “undertake to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the other and to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of the other.”
An archive {photograph} of Mojtaba Khamenei.
Araghchi’s tale of his regional international relations is fascinating. After the host criticized him for now not diplomatically caution the remainder of the area, Araghchi stated: “How do you know we didn’t? A regional leader was excited that Iran was attacked and told us not to respond, because ‘you would hit yourselves and your leaders.'” Sadly they’re of their international locations, in the event that they assault our oil amenities, we will be able to make certain that nobody within the area can promote oil.”
Araghchi stated regional governments stated they steered Trump in opposition to the struggle, as a result of “Iran is different from Venezuela,” the place the US introduced an army intervention in January and captured former President Nicolás Maduro.
Whilst Iran’s assault on Oman, considered one of its closest allies, stunned a number of analysts, Araghchi defined that the cause of the assault used to be that the Omanis have been offering a refueling carrier for American ships. Araghchi stated that when the Iranian assault at the corporate, it stopped offering carrier to American ships.
Araghchi said that the shortcoming of Gulf Arab states to answer Iranian assaults modified “the entire security architecture of the region.” He claimed that his threats to Turkish Overseas Minister Hakan Fidan led Turkey to close down Trump’s plan to foment a Kurdish rebellion within Turkey. He additionally stated he works to exacerbate the divide between the US and Israel. “Sometimes there are conflicts of objectives and positions that can be played with,” he defined.
Araghchi additionally boasted in regards to the pace of the Iranian restoration after the Twelve Day Warfare in June 2025. He stated that the commander of the Islamic Innovative Guard Corps, Ali-Mohammad Naini, instructed him that Iran had tripled its missile capability, and stated that Mohammad Pakpoor, the overdue commander of the Islamic Innovative Guard Corps, stated it diminished the time had to reactivate a base after an assault from 10 to fifteen hours to 35 to 40 mins. “An American think tank said that Iran loses 10 to 15 percent of its launchers per day and has lost a third so far, and that it could last at least until (March 20), but that was based on the Twelve Day War and they didn’t realize that Iran had changed its entire launch system,” he stated.
“The regime would collapse if all members of the Supreme National Security Council were attacked, which is why they never met at the same time during the war.”
Minister of Overseas Affairs, Abbas Araghchi
Araghchi spoke of assembly in tunnels supplied with supplemental oxygen, even supposing the interviewer joked: “When you go in, you have to stay a few days. You can’t get in and out quickly.” Mogooyi printed the positioning of 2 tunnels: “There is a tunnel, one at the end of Pirouzi (street) and another at the north of Darband,” he stated, to which Araghchi spoke back: “There are more, which you don’t know about.”
Araghchi stated he had issue speaking with civilian leaders, who have been in hiding, however that Pakpoor’s successor, Ahmad Vahidi, and Khatam al-Anbiya base commander Ali Abdollahi have been immediately available.
Araghchi spoke of 2 vulnerabilities. The “greatest vulnerability is penetration of the regime” via spies, he stated, including: “The regime would collapse if all members of the Supreme National Security Council were attacked, which is why they never met at the same time during the war.”
Every other political factor used to be the brand new very best chief, Mojtaba Khamenei, and the verdict makers. In keeping with Araghchi, commanders make a decision the route. Mojtaba Khamenei, who, like Mahdi, is in hiding, has symbolic worth. “I have never met Mojtaba. (His appointment) was a very important message to the world that there would be no change in the policies and ideals of the regime” – an evidence that contradicts Vice President JD Vance’s declare that the brand new regime is essentially other. “You see people within the Iranian system — senior leaders, even IRGC officials — saying, ‘You know what? We recognize that the way we’ve done business with the United States for 47 years is a mistake. Let’s try something else,'” Vance stated.
