TEHRAN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- A top Iranian security official said Thursday that Tehran's ongoing diplomacy with the United States was aimed solely at securing the country's rights, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
"The diplomacy that is currently being pursued is solely for the purpose of having the Americans pay Iran's rights," said Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei.
The Strait of Hormuz will be neither reopened nor will any negotiations be held with the United States unless Washington meets Tehran's conditions, Rezaei told Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Moscow earlier in the day.
He added that Putin strongly condemned the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, as well as the bombing of the country's nuclear sites, noting that the Russian president also expressed his country's readiness to provide any assistance necessary to help bring the war to an end.
Rezaei also said he handed Putin the message from Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, noting that the leader wanted it delivered to the Russian president as soon as possible, without disclosing further details.
On Feb. 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities. Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. bases and assets in the region, and tightened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire was achieved between the warring parties on April 8. On June 18, Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the war in the region on all fronts.
Under the MoU, the two countries were scheduled to hold negotiations within 60 days, ending on Aug. 17, to reach a final agreement on Iran's nuclear program and the removal of sanctions. However, they failed to make sufficient progress toward a deal as tensions continued to escalate.
On Thursday night, Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps announced that its aerospace division's electronic warfare systems intercepted two U.S. MQM-170 Outlaw drones over the country's southern Qeshm Island within the preceding hour, according to a statement published on its official news outlet Sepah News.
Separately, Iran's Army said in statements on its website on Thursday that three "violating" oil tankers caught fire earlier in the day after hitting naval mines in the "forbidden and unsafe" region east of the Strait of Hormuz. ■
