The Iranian government has blamed the United States of America for the Israeli airstrike on its country this week.
In a statement released on Friday through its embassy in Pretoria, Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said the Zionist regime’s aggressive actions against Iran could not have happened without US coordination and approval.
“Consequently, the US government, as the primary patron of this regime, will also bear responsibility for the dangerous repercussions of the Zionist regime’s reckless actions,” read the statement.
In February, US President Donald Trump signed a National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM), calling on Iran to be stopped from engaging in any nuclear programmes.
He said Iran should be denied a nuclear weapon and intercontinental ballistic missiles, and that its terrorist network should be neutralised and its aggressive development of missiles, as well as other asymmetric and conventional weapons capabilities, be countered.
The memorandum read: “In 2020, President Trump declared that as long as (he is) President of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
International media reported on Friday that the Israeli military attacked Iran’s nuclear and military sites, killing senior military officials and nuclear scientists.
According to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), among those who were killed in the early hours of Friday in Tehran, Iran’s capital, was Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major-General Hossein Salami.
In another statement released on Thursday, the Iranian government said the country only has a “peaceful nature of its nuclear programme”.
It said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors had been misled by France, the UK, Germany, and the US to cast doubt about the nature of its nuclear programme.
The Ministry stated that Israeli attacks on Iran constitute a violation of Article 2(4) of the United Nations (UN) Charter.
“In accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, Iran reserves the legitimate and legal right to respond to this aggression. The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to defend Iran’s sovereignty with full strength and in the manner they deem appropriate,” read Friday’s statement.
The Ministry also called on the UN to carry out its mandate of preventing aggression, breach of peace, and threats to peace.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran underscores the Security Council’s obligation to take immediate action against this violation of international peace and security, stemming from the Zionist regime’s blatant aggression.
“We call upon the President and members of the Council to act without delay in this regard,” the Ministry said.
FDD said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the airstrike on Iran through the operation “Rising Lion” as aimed at rolling back the Iranian threat to Israel’s survival.
FDD said Netanyahu said the strikes will “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat”.
It said Netanyahu stressed his gratitude to Trump “for his steadfast stance”, against Iran’s nuclear weapons.
In defence of Israeli action, FDD Chief Executive Officer Mark Dubowitz said the Israeli inaction would have had a far greater cost.
“Israel did what had to be done: defend itself, the West, and ultimately the Iranian people from the genocidal ambitions of the mullahs.
“Nuclear talks were heading to collapse under Tehran’s defiance, and sanctions alone couldn’t stop Iran’s race toward multiple nuclear weapons,” said Dubowitz.
However, South Africa’s former member of the IAEA Board of Directors, Dr Abdul Samad Minty, told the International Union of Scientists publication early this year that the IAEA had previously found no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons.
“When I was on the board of the IAEA, I was able to expose in many cases that Iran was complying with the peaceful requirements of the IAEA, but the Western countries continued to support Israel’s case that Iran was developing nuclear weapons.
“There was no evidence at that time that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, but they thought that all nuclear cooperation with Iran should be stopped, because it had the potential in the end to develop nuclear weapons,” the publication quoted Minty.
He told the publication that many countries in the region supported Israel’s position that Iran is a nuclear threat.
“And they are also becoming hostile to Iran because of that, when there’s no evidence of Iranian nuclear weapons being developed at that stage,” he said.
