Tehran [Iran], March 25 : The messaging coming out of Tehran continues to be one of defiance even as US President Trump claims that negotiations to end the conflict are on. Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has pledged that Iran will sustain its defensive and retaliatory measures until the United States and the Israeli regime "regret" their aggression.
Araghchi made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. According to Press TV, Araghchi detailed Washington's and Tel Aviv's attacks targeting the Islamic Republic's civilian and defence infrastructure calling it the primary cause of the current instability in the region.
"Iran will defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity until all objectives are achieved and the enemy is made to regret its violent aggression," he added.
He also stressed that the insecurity in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz was directly linked to the atrocities.
"The measures and precautions taken by Iran are in accordance with international law and are aimed at defending Iran's sovereignty and national security, while preventing aggressors from misusing this waterway to carry out acts of aggression against Iran."
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said it had launched a fresh wave of retaliatory strikes targeting Israel's intelligence facilities in Tel Aviv.
The IRGC's Public Relations Department said it had deployed powerful Kheybar Shekan, Emad, and Sejjil missiles alongside IRGC Aerospace Force kamikaze drones, breaching Israel's multi-layered air defence systems. The missiles, it stated, targeted Israel's intelligence facilities in northern and central Tel Aviv, as well as military commercial and support centres in Ramat Gan and the Negev. The missiles also hit Israel's southern military logistics and command headquarters in Beersheba.
This comes even as US President Trump claimed that his negotiations were going on with the right kind of people in Iran and that this signified a regime change.
"They are going to make a deal... They gave us a present yesterday, and it arrived today. It was a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money... It was a very significant price, and they gave it to us, and they said that they were going to give it. That meant one thing to me: that we are dealing with the right people... It was oil and gas related... The leadership was killed. All gone. Khamenei was all gone, as the expression goes, the past Supreme Leader. Then the new Supreme Leader was, at a minimum, racked up pretty good... We are dealing with a group of people who turned out. The present they gave to us was very significant... They are the only ones that could have done it... It was related to the flow, to the Strait (of Hormuz). We have a new group, and we can easily do that, but let's see how they turn out. This is a change in the regime because the leaders are all very different from the ones that we started off with, who created all those problems," he said.
With strikes and counter strikes still on, peace in the troubled West Asia region remains elusive.