TEHRAN, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday warned that the country will not hesitate to forcefully respond to any "transgression," and will spare no effort to protect its interests and people.
He made the remarks in a post on social media platform X while pointing to a Tuesday report by CNN, which, citing "multiple" informed U.S. officials, said the United States had obtained new intelligence "suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities."
Describing the reported Israeli plans as "unlawful" and "alarming," Araghchi called for urgent condemnation from the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
He noted that in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Rafael Grossi, IAEA's director general, earlier in the day, he had called on the international community to take effective preventive measures against the continuation of Israeli threats.
Araghchi stressed that the letter was a "serious pre-action warning," saying that Iran would take "special measures" to defend its people, interests, and nuclear facilities, according to the official news agency IRNA.
In response to the reported Israeli threats, Ali-Mohammad Naeini, a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said should Israel perpetrate any act of aggression against Iran, it would definitely receive a "devastating and decisive" response, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The report of Israel's preparations for a potential military action against Iran's nuclear facilities comes as Iranian and U.S. delegations have so far held four rounds of indirect talks since April on Tehran's nuclear program and the lifting of U.S. sanctions, and are expected to hold a fifth round in Rome on Friday.
In recent days, U.S. officials have repeatedly demanded that Iran completely cease uranium enrichment, a request firmly rejected by Tehran. ■
