Araghchi on NBC: Iran ready for a “doomsday war” if fighting with the U.S. resumes — but the door to diplomacy stays open

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Photo: IAEA/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that his country is ready even for a “doomsday war” if the United States resumes its attacks, just a day after President Donald Trump confirmed he had rejected Iran’s ceasefire proposal. The remarks were made Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” as the Washington Examiner reports.

“We are fully prepared for the war to resume. We stand unwavering in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war,” Araghchi said, referring to the Wall Street Journal’s report that Trump is seriously considering a return to an intensive bombing campaign after November’s midterm elections. In the same breath, Iran’s top diplomat left the door open to negotiations: “At the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose,” he stressed.

Araghchi sought to build his case by pointing, according to NBC’s reporting, to the shifting public objectives of the U.S. in the conflict, arguing that a new round of fighting would end in another stalemate. “Trump wanted unconditional surrender in the previous war within two days. And now they have been fighting for eight months with no result. A new aggression would surely be the same,” he said, also acknowledging Tehran’s mistakes: “We have learned the lesson from the two previous wars, we have corrected our tactics and we are fully prepared.”

The Iranian minister also revealed that Tehran is unsure of Trump’s response: despite Saturday’s public rejection, he said, Washington has still not formally communicated its refusal to Iran through mediation channels. He described Iran’s ceasefire proposal — which offered to halt attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks in exchange for lifting the U.S. naval blockade — as an act of goodwill, adding: “We have no reason to return to diplomacy with this administration, after the way they behaved over the past two years, when hostilities erupted in the middle of negotiations. But I keep trying diplomacy, because we must not miss any chance for peace.”