Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has had enough of what he calls lies. In a candid interview with India Today aired Wednesday, he pushed back firmly against claims that Tehran is building missiles capable of striking the United States, labeling the allegations flat out “fake news”, according to Mehr News Agency.
The reality, he said, is simpler and more deliberate. Iran has intentionally kept its missile range below 2,000 kilometres. These weapons, he insisted, exist for one purpose only, to defend Iranian soil, not threaten the world.
The interview came just hours before Araghchi flew to Geneva, Switzerland, where Iran and the United States were set to hold nuclear talks Thursday, a rare and closely watched diplomatic moment.
But Araghchi’s words carried weight beyond missiles. He offered a sweeping, sometimes emotional account of nearly five decades of hostility between Tehran and Washington. He traced it all back to 1979, when Iran’s Islamic Revolution toppled a U.S.-backed monarchy and permanently shattered the two nations’ relationship.
Since then, he argued, America has never truly understood Iran. “They have no real information about Iran and Iranian people,” he said plainly. Instead, he claimed, Washington has been fed a steady diet of misinformation, much of it, he alleged, shaped by Israeli lobbying.
He didn’t stop there. Araghchi reminded his audience that Iran has survived coups, an eight-year war with Iraq that he said America fueled, waves of sanctions, and what he described as maximum pressure campaigns. “They tried everything,” he said. “And they failed.”
Yet despite the sharp words, the Foreign Minister left a door open. He said Iran is willing to engage even with the Trump administration but only on equal terms, with mutual respect as the foundation.
“If they try that language,” he said, “they will see the result.”
The question now is whether anyone in Washington is truly listening.
