WANA (Jun 26) \u2013 Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has rejected calls to limit the country\u2019s defense capabilities, insisting that Tehran\u2019s military assets are not open to negotiation or compromise with any party.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei responded to the joint statement issued by the United States and the\u00a0 Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) foreign ministers following their June 25, 2026 meeting, describing it as \u201ca distortion of reality\u201d and a repetition of failed policies.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baghaei said Iran has a greater stake in regional collective security than any other country, arguing that relying on what he described as the region\u2019s primary source of insecurity would do nothing to enhance stability. According to him, such an approach reflects a failure to learn from the costly experiences of recent years.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The spokesperson also directed a series of questions at Iran\u2019s southern neighbors, accusing some Persian Gulf states of violating the principle of good neighborliness by facilitating what he called acts of aggression against Iran. He claimed that some countries had allowed their territories to be used for military operations or missile launches targeting the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Baghaei further criticized what he described as the Persian Gulf states\u2019 silence over the region\u2019s ongoing arms race and Israel\u2019s undeclared nuclear arsenal, which he said remains outside international oversight. He questioned why Iran\u2019s conventional defensive capabilities are portrayed as a threat while the military policies and repeated actions of other regional actors receive little attention.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
His remarks came after U.S. and PGCC foreign ministers, in the final communiqu\u00e9 of their meeting in Bahrain, welcomed the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding and asserted that lasting peace in the Middle East requires addressing what they described as threats posed by Iran\u2019s missile and drone programs, as well as its support for proxy groups. The statement also stressed the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ensuring unrestricted freedom of navigation as essential to regional and global security.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a separate post on X, Baghaei said Iran\u2019s military capabilities serve as a guarantee of the nation\u2019s inherent right to self-defense against aggression while also contributing to regional peace and stability.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNational security and dignity are not negotiable and cannot be made conditional,\u201d he said. \u201cJust as the inherent right to legitimate self-defense can never be the subject of negotiations, the means required to exercise that right cannot be a matter of compromise with any party.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Separately, Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry issued a statement condemning the U.S.-PGCC communiqu\u00e9, reaffirming that the Islamic Republic will show no leniency in defending its territorial integrity, national security, and its missile and drone capabilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WANA (Jun 26) \u2013 Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has rejected calls to limit the country\u2019s defense capabilities, insisting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[2328,34,39,54287,1690],"class_list":["post-178830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-persian-gulf","tag-defence","tag-iran","tag-persian-gulf","tag-pgcc","tag-the-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116817293673674381","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}