The Iranian Executive has expressed this Sunday its rejection of mentions of a "military confrontation" in the Persian Gulf and has insisted that its actions do not constitute attacks, but rather that it "strikes" military facilities "in self-defense".
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baqaei, responded in this way to the statements of Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, who alluded to "new military confrontations in the gulf" and, specifically, to "Iranian attacks against ships in the Strait of Hormuz" and "United States attacks against Iran".
"Mr. Spokesman: This situation is not a military confrontation, but the continuation of a flagrant military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime against Iran initiated on February 28," Baqaei stated, adding: "Blaming Iran for defending itself from aggression is irresponsible and unjustified."
The Foreign Ministry representative emphasized that "Iran has not attacked anywhere" because "Iran has struck US military bases and assets located in the southern part of the Persian Gulf" in exercise of its "inherent right to self-defense contemplated in international law".
Baqaei also urged an analysis of why certain countries allow the use of their territory and bases by the United States "to prepare attacks against Iran" and reproached Dujarric for using the term Gulf to refer to the Persian Gulf. "The correct way is Persian Gulf. Please follow the UN recommendations, such as circulars of August 18, 1994, and May 14, appealed.
Both the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and the United States habitually use the designation Gulf to refer to the Persian Gulf, whose name refers to the Iranian nation's Persian origin.