Twenty Days: Tehran Says Washington Has Torn Up Every Article of the War-Ending Deal
Iran's Foreign Ministry calls the strikes a 'third betrayal of diplomacy' and urges Persian Gulf neighbours to close their territory to the aggressors
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has accused the United States of committing a “third betrayal of diplomacy” by violating the June 18 memorandum of understanding just 20 days after it was concluded, as American strikes killed at least seven soldiers at a military garrison and struck civilian infrastructure across the country.
In a statement issued Thursday, the ministry said Washington had announced a naval blockade against Iran — which it described as an open admission of breaching another of its commitments under the Islamabad understanding — while simultaneously intensifying its attacks and committing what the ministry called numerous war crimes.
The strikes cited
The ministry set out a series of attacks from the past week. Among them was a strike early Wednesday on a garrison of the army’s 388th Brigade in Bampur, near the southeastern city of Iranshahr, which killed seven conscripted soldiers and wounded several others.
It also cited a strike on a wheat storage silo in Hoveyzeh, an attack on a mineral water factory in the Mousian district of Dehloran, and a strike on the Chabahar maritime control tower — the last, the ministry said, intended to disrupt rescue operations for fishermen and undermine the security of maritime trade.
The attacks, it said, constitute a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and of fundamental rules of international law, and amount to serious international crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, obliging all governments to prosecute those responsible. Repeated threats to strike bridges and power plants, delivered alongside attacks on vital infrastructure, were cited as evidence of intent. Those who carry out such acts, the ministry added, cannot absolve themselves of legal and moral responsibility by invoking the orders of superior commanders.
‘The sanctity of its own signature’
The ministry said the US establishment had, for the third time in a single year, betrayed diplomacy in the midst of a negotiating process — this time without even respecting the sanctity of its own signature on a 14-article memorandum reached through Iran’s goodwill and the efforts of mediators. In doing so, it said, Washington had disrespected the institution of mediation and rendered every component of the June 18 agreement ineffective, and bore full responsibility for the consequences.
Citing Article 51 of the UN Charter, the ministry affirmed that Iran is using all its capacities to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity and would show no leniency in doing so, describing its strikes on military bases and assets used in the aggression as consistent with its inherent right to self-defence.
That resistance, it stressed, does not relieve the United Nations and the international community of their own legal duty to hold the aggressors to account. Indifference to such lawlessness, it warned, and inaction in the face of flagrant breaches of international humanitarian law, would carry lasting and dangerous consequences for every country.
An appeal to the neighbours
The ministry closed with a direct appeal to Iran’s southern Persian Gulf neighbours, urging them to immediately prevent the aggressors from using their land, sea, and air territory and facilities for attacks on Iran, in order to halt the spread of the war across the region.
Iran, it said, harbours no hostility toward any of its neighbours, and holds that lasting regional security can only be built through understanding and cooperation among the region’s own states — free of US military presence and intervention. Tehran, it added, would not allow attempts to sow hostility and mistrust among the region’s nations to succeed.
Reference: PressTv