Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei during the weekly press conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the capital Tehran .AFP
"Unfortunately, the United States is damaging this diplomatic process through the contradictory messages it sends, its repeated shifts in positions and demands, and, worst of all, through repeated violations of the ceasefire," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said, in a video message carried by Iranian media.
“The course of the negotiations will be under study due to last night’s developments, and diplomacy does not occur in a vacuum,” he said, adding that Israel's repeated violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon were damaging the diplomatic track.
"Any diplomatic process is damaged by the use of force and by resorting to unlawful actions on the ground," said Baqaei, stressing the need for a “minimal level of favourable atmosphere” to move any diplomatic process forward.
Earlier Wednesday, the US military launched airstrikes on Iranian targets following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that US President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic. Shortly after, Iran launched a series of drone and missile attacks on American bases in Jordan, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said foreign military forces near its territory “are at constant risk” and later vowed that there would be a response to the new US strikes.
Iranian forces “will leave no attack or threat unanswered,” Araghchi said on X. “Leave our region if you want to be safe.”
He added that the Strait is “thousands of miles away from US shores,” implying the aircraft should not have been there in the first place.
The US strikes against Iranian targets, and the Iranian retaliation comes amid stalled peace negotiations between Washington and Tehran to cement the 8 April ceasefire agreement, mediated by Pakistan, and end the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Despite the ceasefire, the US has maintained a naval blockade on Iran and struck various targets in the country on more than one occasion. On the other side, Iran carried out devastating attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait last week, triggering a wave of regional condemnation.
Earlier this week, Iran launched a series of missile attacks on Israel in what it described as retaliation for Israeli bombardment of Lebanon in violation of the terms of the April ceasefire. Shortly after, the Israelis launched a series of deadly attacks on Iranian targets.
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