TEHRAN, July 27– Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that Tehran will not let the United States determine the war’s end, Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Noting that the United States has been “stuck in a quagmire” for five months, Baghaei said at a press briefing that Tehran will not allow the U.S. side “to determine the time of war and peace, and we will defend ourselves for as long as necessary.”
He added that the United States was not involved in recent talks with Oman over the management of the Strait of Hormuz, which he described as “positive.”
“These talks have no connection with the United States. They are a bilateral matter between Iran and Oman, and they are continuing,” he said, noting that the waterway “remains closed.”
Baghaei said that some Gulf countries have been involved in the U.S. war on Iran, without giving further details.
He also warned of “unforeseen” consequences after Ukraine attacked an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea over the weekend.
In a separate statement posted on X, Baghaei said, “Zelenskyy has attacked an Iranian commercial vessel, killing a sailor,” calling it a blatant violation of the UN Charter “done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.”
“This action by Ukraine was an absolutely illegal and unjustified act … as well as a dangerous act of adventurism that will certainly not go unanswered by us,” Baghaei said at the press briefing, adding that the consequences of Ukraine’s action “will certainly be unforeseen.”
(Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
