Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran: The conflict with the US and Israel is not over yet

Iran's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Said Khatibzadeh stated that Tehran's conflict with the United States and Israel remains unfinished, and the Islamic Republic continues to adhere to a defensive strategy.

This was reported by TASS.

"I think it is difficult to say that the war is over. Until the war ends on all fronts, peace cannot be guaranteed. And therefore, I think, Iran cannot risk its national security. Iran will continue to remain in a state of heightened readiness and [maintain] a defensive posture on various fronts," the diplomat said at the venue of the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), a think tank affiliated with Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He noted that Tehran's goal is to "defeat the adversary" by not allowing the United States to "achieve any of its objectives inside Iran."

According to him, it is currently necessary to "focus on ending this war <...> and eliminating its root causes." "And we will be working on this, as we proposed [during the negotiations] in Islamabad and afterward," Khatibzadeh added.

As a reminder, on February 28, the United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran, carrying out airstrikes on a number of cities. On the same day, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed as a result of these strikes. In response, Iran launched missile strikes on Israeli territory and attacked American military bases in Persian Gulf countries.

Iran, the United States, and their allies reached a ceasefire agreement on the night of April 8, 2026, which American leader Donald Trump later extended indefinitely.