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Sinking of ‘unarmed’ ship IRIS Dena can’t go unpunished: Iran's deputy foreign minister
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh says Tehran will resist “to the last soldier” after a US submarine sank frigate IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka
Iranian deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh on Friday said the sinking of an “unarmed” Iranian warship by the US away from the combat zone cannot be allowed to pass “with impunity.” He stated that Iran has no option but to resist to the last soldier in an “existential war” started by Israel and the US, even as negotiations were still underway.
Khatibzadeh, who arrived in India hours after a US submarine torpedoed and sank the frigate IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, insisted the warship was in a non-combat configuration as it was returning from a multi-nation exercise hosted by India. “This is a very unfortunate incident. That vessel was [here] on the invitation of our Indian friends…It was a ceremonial [event], it was unarmed and the only precedent for that was during the Nazi times, when they attacked unarmed vessels away from the combat zone,” Khatibzadeh told reporters on the margins of the Raisina Dialogue.
“Americans are exercising the practices of Nazi Germany when they attacked a ceremonial, unarmed and unloaded vessel…Many young Iranian sailors attending this exercise lost their lives and it cannot go with impunity for those who did that,” he said.
IRIS Dena participated in an International Fleet Review and the multi-nation exercise hosted by India last month. Close to 90 sailors were killed in the attack, which marked a dramatic widening of the conflict between the Iran-US beyond the Persian Gulf.
Khatibzadeh said Iran’s priority is “ultimate resistance against the aggressors”. He added, “We are under attack by Americans and Israelis and they are trying to impose maximum damage on Iran…Tehran is under constant attack and we have no option but to resist to the last bullet and to the last soldier that we have.”
Khatibzadeh also met external affairs minister S Jaishankar on the margins of the Raisina Dialogue. Jaishankar posted a photo of the meeting on social media, but there was no official readout. “I had a brief meeting with the foreign minister of India …What is important is that everybody is supporting international law, and we hope that we are not cherry-picking international law,” Khatibzadeh told reporters.
While participating in a discussion on the situation in West Asia at the Raisina Dialogue, Khatibzadeh said Iran had no option but to resist after Israel and the US launched attacks in the midst of negotiations on the Iranian nuclear programme in Geneva last month. “This is an existential war for Iran. They would like to put an end to the existence of Iran and we are fighting a heroic, nationalistic war to push back the aggressors.”
Khatibzadeh also sought to justify attacks launched by Iran against US bases in neighbouring West Asian countries such as Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a move that has drawn the censure of Arab nations. “We have no option but to hit wherever the Americans are originating their attacks from,” he said, adding that Iran’s response is aimed at putting “an end to their [US] presence in the region”. “They don’t want to be in co-existence with Iran, so this is what they get,” he said.
When Khatibzadeh was asked by reporters about a possible off ramp to end the hostilities, he said: “We are resisting, this is a resistance for history, the region, the world, principles of international law, ethics and morality…The moment they [Israel and the US] stop the aggression, we are going to have a new dynamism in the region.”
Khatibzadeh criticised the US for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and told reporters: “Americans have assassinated the head of another state. If this is the new norm, then nobody, no country on earth can have normal diplomatic relations with other countries.”
