Iran Warns Middle East Nations Against Supporting US Attacks

Iran has issued a stark warning to Middle Eastern nations, demanding they refrain from supporting any US-led attacks against it. Tehran has stated that if regional countries comply, it will not target them in retaliation.

The message was delivered by Mohammad-Mehdi Tabatabaei, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian President for Public Relations. He emphasized that Iran's position is clear: "If countries in the region do not cooperate when the US attacks us, then we will not attack them either," he wrote on social media platform X.

However, Tabatabaei warned that Iran would respond decisively to any continued "aggression" by striking American military bases located across the Middle East. This stance was echoed by Iran's Parliament Speaker, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, who declared that peace in the region is impossible as long as US bases remain.

"US military bases in the region have become a platform for operations against Iran. A retaliatory strike will be delivered to the location from which any attack is launched. As long as American bases exist in the Middle East region, there will be no peace. All statesmen and the people of Iran are united in this opinion," Ghalibaf stated.

Simultaneously, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to balance this hardline position with diplomatic outreach. He asserted that Tehran hopes to preserve relations with Middle Eastern countries over whose territories it launched strikes in response to attacks from the US and Israel.

Pezeshkian reiterated Iran's commitment to "friendly relations with regional states based on good neighborliness and mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity." He framed Iran's recent military actions as purely defensive, targeting only locations he described as "the source and starting point for aggressive actions against Iran," which Tehran considers legitimate targets.

The president also referenced a prior decision by Tehran not to strike neighboring countries unless attacked from their soil and offered apologies to nations inadvertently affected by Iranian retaliatory strikes following US and Israeli actions.