15 March 2026
Transrcript: Resistance News
Interviewer: We turn now to the foreign minister of Iran, Abbas Araghchi. Good evening to you, sir.
Abbas Araghchi: Good evening to you. Thank you for having me for the second time.
Interviewer: Yes, and they are extraordinary times. Minister, President Trump said this weekend he is not ready to make a deal with Iran because the terms are not good enough yet. His administration is saying this war could last another three and a half weeks or so. Has Iran asked for a ceasefire?
Abbas Araghchi: No, we never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiation. We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes, and this is what we have done so far, and we will continue to do that until President Trump comes to the point that this is an illegal war with no victory. People are being killed only because President Trump wants to “have fun”. This is what he has said.
Interviewer: Have fun?
Abbas Araghchi: Yes, this is what he said, that they are sinking ships and targeting different places because it is “fun”. The Secretary of War has said that there is no mercy. This is actually a war crime. Even saying that is a war crime. So this is a war of choice by President Trump and the United States, and we are going to continue our self-defense.
Interviewer: Well, that may be your position, but sir, this is a war of survival for your government. Minister, don’t you have to negotiate and reach out either directly or through a third party?
Abbas Araghchi: No, it is not a war of survival. We are stable and strong enough. We are only defending our people from this act of aggression. We do not see any reason why we should talk with the Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time. There is no good experience talking with the Americans. We were talking. So why did they decide to attack us? What is the point if we go back to talk once again?
Interviewer: Well, I want to come back to that in just a moment. You are referring to the diplomacy with President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff. But just to continue on this: Iran is sending its drones and its missiles into your neighboring countries, American allies throughout the Gulf. Before the war, your government traded with them and had relations with them. If your government survives this conflict, how do you go back to doing business with countries you are sending drones into and hitting civilian targets?
Abbas Araghchi: Obviously these are the countries who have given their soil to American forces to attack us. What can we do? Should we just sit and watch while American forces attack us from their soil?
Interviewer: But your drones are going into civilian areas and hitting plants, hotels, and civilians.
Abbas Araghchi: No. This is not the case. We are only targeting American assets, American installations, American military bases. Everything belongs to the Americans. This is a fact: they are using their soil. There are many examples.
Just yesterday they attacked our islands using HIMARS artillery rockets, which are low-range rockets, and they used the territory of the UAE to attack us. A week ago, three F-15 jet fighters were shot down, apparently by “friendly fire”, in Kuwait. But nobody asked what they were doing in Kuwait. They were using Kuwait and the airspace of a neighborly, friendly country to attack us. So it is obvious we cannot simply remain passive.
Interviewer: Well, many of these countries are part of CENTCOM. But the point is that this is going to hurt your country in the long term. When we talk about the Strait of Hormuz, which is such an important transit point for global trade, you have said it is closed to Israel and to the United States. The Financial Times is reporting that European diplomats from France and Italy are talking to your government about trying to get safe passage for their ships. Are you open to restarting oil and gas vessels going through there?
Abbas Araghchi: We are open to countries who want to talk to us about the safe passage of their vessels.
Interviewer: Are you negotiating with France and Italy?
Abbas Araghchi: I cannot mention any country in particular, but we have been approached by a number of countries who want safe passage for their vessels. This is up to our military to decide, and they have already decided to allow a group of vessels belonging to different countries to pass safely and securely. We provide them security to pass because we have not closed the strait. They are not coming themselves because of the insecurity created by the aggression of the United States.
Interviewer: I want to ask you again about the negotiations. Iran has declared it has about 440 kilos of nuclear material. Where is that material now? Who has custody of it?
Abbas Araghchi: We have not declared it. This was verified and declared by the (IAEA) agency.
Interviewer: That is right.
Abbas Araghchi: This is not a secret. The agency has stated in many reports the exact amount of our enriched nuclear material.
Interviewer: Yes. So where is it now? Who has custody of it?
Abbas Araghchi: They are under the rubble. Our nuclear facilities were attacked and everything is under the rubble. Of course, there is the possibility to retrieve them, but under the supervision of the agency. If one day we come to the conclusion to do that, it would be under the supervision of the agency. But for the time being we have no program and no plan to recover them from under the rubble.
Interviewer: Am I understanding you here? I know that 48 hours before the US strikes you had personally offered President Trump’s negotiators to take that 440-kilo amount of 60% enriched material and dilute it. You said Iran was ready to give that material away. This was also in the deal presented to Vice President Vance by Oman. Today, is Iran still willing to give up that enriched uranium?
Abbas Araghchi: That was one of the elements of a deal we were negotiating with our American interlocutors. That element dealt with the question of Iran’s 60% enriched material. I offered that we were ready to dilute those enriched materials, or downblend them, as they say, into a lower percentage. That was a big offer, a big concession, in order to prove that Iran has never wanted nuclear weapons and would never want them.
Interviewer: Are you willing to give that up?
Abbas Araghchi: There is nothing on the table right now. Everything depends on the future. If at any time in the future we decide to enter negotiations with the United States or other interlocutors, we may decide what to put on the table. For the time being, nothing is on the table.
Interviewer: There are at least four Americans being held at Evin Prison that we know of, including the journalist Reza Valizadeh and Kamran Hekmati, a 61-year-old man. What is the status of those Americans? Are they safe?
Abbas Araghchi: If the United States and Israel do not attack our prisons, I guess they are safe.
Interviewer: Foreign Minister, we are running out of time and I can see the internet is going in and out here. I do want to point out that you are speaking to us via Zoom. The Iranian people do not have open internet access, but you do. Why?
Abbas Araghchi: Because I am the voice of the Iranians and I have to defend their rights. That is why I have access to the internet, to make sure our voice is heard by the international community. But the internet is closed for security reasons because we are under attack. We are under aggression and we have to do everything to protect our people. In any country, there are urgent measures taken for the sake of war.
Interviewer: Minister, I am glad the uplink worked so we could talk to you. We thank you for your time this morning.
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