Name: Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei speaks to BBC News | BBC News
Uploaded: 2026-02-28T23:01:54.000Z
Duration: 11 min 23 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

We can speak to the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ismail Bagai.

Thank you very much for joining us here on BBC News.

Can we first begin with the latest on the impact of these strikes on the senior political and military leadership in Iran?

There are reports that a number of senior leaders, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was were targeted in Israel strikes.

Can you confirm for us whether the top leadership is still alive or where are they?

I'm not in a situation to confirm anything.

The whole system, the whole nation is focused on defending our national integrity, on our sovereignty and territorial integrity.

So what we are doing right now is to defend with all force against this unprovoked act of aggression by Israel and by Americans.

Could I ask you, Obviously it would be of concern to the Foreign Ministry if the Supreme Leader has been targeted.

There are seem there are consistent reports that his residence, his offices for were targeted this morning.

Can you give us at least a confirmation or a denial as to whether or not those residences were targeted?

I can tell you that many places, many targets were hit across the country, including a number of schools, a number of primary schools, in particular one elementary school and more than 150 innocent girls were killed and maimed and many of them are still under the rubble in Minab or Mozgan province south of Iran.

That was one of the first detailed reports to emerge of civilian casualties at school in southern Iran.

We understand that the school was very close to a base of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Can you give us more details about that attack?

That's simply a way of normalizing atrocity and atrocious crime.

Simply to say those civilian targets were hit because they were in the vicinity of military bases, that's nonsensical.

They indiscriminately and intentionally attacked these places.

They massacred innocent girls not only in Minab, but

also in other places in La Mer Fars province also.

So they are just calling them collateral damage and by that they just try to somehow justify these acts of aggression and these acts of masculinity.

Iran has retaliated, as it said it would.

You have now attacked countries right across the region, including your Arab allies.

Don't you risk losing the key support you need among your regional partners at this time.

Two things, I think how you qualify a given act matters.

It is an act of self defense recognized under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

Secondly, we have not attacked any country.

What we have done, we have defended against an action by the United States.

And we all know that in accordance with international.

No country is allowed to let other countries, to let the aggressor abuse or use its facilities, its soil, in order to attack another country.

What we are doing is defending our national territory, our sovereignty against an act of aggression.

And we all know that those bases, those military bases which are under full control of the United States are being used to conduct military attack against Iran.

But that's not how your allies are seeing it.

As I mentioned, they have issued a statement condemning your attacks.

The Foreign Minister of Asarakchi has been on the telephone to all of these capitals.

Yes, that's why we really value our friendship with the countries of the region.

That's why the diplomatic process that was betrayed by the United States just recently started in the region.

The countries of the region were involved in this process because everyone understands that the security of the region, security of all countries of the region are interrelated, interconnected.

And what matters most is that the countries of the region understand that the main threat to our collective security, to the future of the security of this region is Israel, which is talking about the Greater Israel.

And now the United States is being dragged into its war of aggression against the whole region.

So this is not only against Iran run, this is against the whole region.

Many of the leaders in the region had been working around the clock to avert a war.

But in their first statements, they didn't condemn the attacks by Israel backed by the United States.

Their first condemnation was of your attacks.

So this seems to put you in a weaker position diplomatically, just at a time when you need your allies.

Minister Arafchi has been in close contact with his counterparts in the region.

And I think everyone in the region understands that this war was not started by Iran.

And the point is that again, that we are not attacking any country in the region.

We have no problem, no issue with our Arab neighbors.

The only thing they are doing is to conduct an act of self defense against those bases which are being used by the United States to attack Iran.

In a way, the United States is abusing the territory of the Arab countries of the region in order to launch an act of aggression against Iran.

And this is, this is in violation of basic principles of international law.

President Trump, in his first comments this morning, said he tried to do a deal with you.

He said he tried, but you didn't want to come to a deal.

Do you now realize that you weren't moving forward quickly enough in offering the kind of compromises which could have averted this military action which is now unfolding?

You know, this is just a way of normalizing their act of aggression.

Everyone knows, including the Omani mediator, that the negotiations were moving in a good direction.

Even the American negotiators acknowledged the fact that the negotiations were quite progressing.

That's why they agreed to have a technical round of discussion in Vienna to be hosted by IAEA Secretary the Attorney General.

So talking about not moving forward with respect to diplomatic process is simply not true.

And I think nowadays everyone can understand fully that it was a sort of deception.

They were not serious about diplomatic process and diplomatic achievement from day one.

And this is simply a reminder of what they did in June.

You remember that we were supposed to meet for the sixth round, but

just two days before that they attacked Iran.

The Britain, Germany and France have called for the resumption of negotiations.

But seeing what's happening now in the region, it seems as though the time for talking is over.

What we are focusing right now is to defend our people, to defend our territory, to defend our national security.

And I think this is what, for the time being we have to focus.

Have had very bad experiences of diplomacy.

I mean, they turn diplomacy into a sort of trap for attacking Iran.

And everyone knows now in the region and internationally that the United States diplomacy cannot be trusted at all.

They made it clear it's about regime change now for President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

That's simply an illusion that on the international law, of course, everyone should condemn these rhetorics because this is against the right of self determination of people.

This is against the principle of non intervention in the domestic affairs of the state.

And for Iranians, by the way, it is a reminiscent of 1953 Qudeita, which is still an old wound.

And by this attack, the Americans simply reminded every Iranian that the history of animosity, the history of hostility by the United States administration goes back to 70 years ago.

Ismail Bagai, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson of Tehran.