Iran foreign minister says U.S. invasion disaster for them
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks at a press conference at the Lutfi Krdar Congress Center during the 51st Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul on June 22, 2025.
Ozan Köse | Afp | Getty Images
Iran’s foreign minister said Thursday that his country “does not ask for a ceasefire” from the United States and Israel and that “we do not see any reason for us to negotiate” after nearly a week of war.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also told NBC News in an exclusive interview that he is “confident” that Iran could confront the US military if President Donald Trump decides to invade the country with ground troops.
“And that would be a huge disaster for them,” Araghchi told NBC.
He also said that after six days of war against Iran, “it is clear that the United States has failed to achieve its main goal, which was a clean and quick victory.”
“They failed to do that and now they’re trying to justify why they attacked us. You know, they gave a lot of different reasons but none of them worked,” Araghchi said. “And now they’re talking about plan B. And I believe plan B will be an even bigger failure.”
Araghchi’s comments suggest Iran is heading into a longer war with the United States after Trump said he predicted the war would last four to five weeks. Trump criticized his Democratic predecessors for engaging in protracted conflicts in the Middle East.
Araghchi said the war was “not our war.” “This is a war of choice for the United States.”
“We don’t want a ceasefire and we don’t see any reason to negotiate,” he said.
“Are we going to negotiate with the United States when we negotiated with the United States twice and each time they attacked us in the middle of negotiations?” he asked.
“So we do not demand a ceasefire, nor do we demand negotiations with the United States.”
“We did not attack our neighbors. We did not attack Muslim countries,” Aragchi said when asked why Iran launched attacks on about a dozen neighboring Arab countries during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
“Unfortunately, we attacked Americans, targets, American bases, American facilities located on our neighbors’ territory,” he said. “We made this clear to them, I contacted the foreign ministers and explained ‘we are not targeting you’. We have no problem with you. We only target American facilities.’ “
