Iran’s Foreign Ministry defends retaliatory strikes, slams US betrayal

Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says Iran’s attacks on US targets across the region are legitimate defensive actions.Published On 28 Feb 2026Iran is entitled to defend itself from Israeli and US attacks, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stressed.“We have every right in accordance with international law, with the UN Charter, to defend ourselves with all might”, Esmaeil Baghaei said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Scattered fires, damage seen across Israel as Iran retaliateslist 2 of 3Nine months after 12-day war, US, Israel seek to topple Iran’s leaderslist 3 of 3Suspected Iranian drone hits Bahrain high-rise buildingend of listThe US and Israel launched a wave of attacks across multiple Iranian cities, including Tehran, on Saturday, in what US President Donald Trump described as “major combat operations”.At least 201 people have been killed, according to Iranian media, citing the Red Crescent.A plume of smoke rises following a reported explosion in Tehran on February 28, 2026 [AFP]Iran responded by firing missiles towards Israel and US military targets in multiple countries, including Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.Baghaei said the country’s armed forces “are defending national sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Iran against these barbaric acts of aggression”.The US-Israeli attacks came after a third round of indirect negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme between the US and Iran ended on Friday.“We were supposed to meet on Monday to talk about technical aspects of any possible deal on [the] nuclear issue,” Baghaei said. “And the Americans themselves acknowledged that these negotiations went quite well. The mediator, [the] foreign minister of Oman, qualified this round of negotiations as being of significant progress.”It was the second time in less than a year that diplomacy had been scuttled by an attack on Iran, Baghaei noted. Iran and the US had engaged in several rounds of negotiations last year, when Israel launched a 12-day war on Iran in June, which the US briefly joined, despite Trump saying he was committed to a diplomatic resolution.