DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's top diplomat warned Thursday that his country would take "special measures" to defend its nuclear facilities if Israel continues to threaten them, raising the stakes further ahead of a new round of talks with the United States.
The comments by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered no specifics on what Tehran would do, but international inspectors already have seen their access limited to Iran's program. That's even as Tehran enriches uranium to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
“I have called on the international community to take effective preventive measures against the continuation of Israeli threats, which if unchecked, will compel Iran to take special measures in defense of our nuclear facilities and materials,” Araghchi wrote on the social platform X after sending letters to United Nations officials.
“The nature, content and extent of our actions will correspond and be proportionate to preventive measures taken by these international bodies in accordance with their statutory duties and obligations.”
Iran's mission to the United Nations later posted Araghchi's letter online, which included a warning to the U.S. as well.
“We are likewise of the firm conviction that — in the event of any attack against the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime — the government of the United States shall bear legal responsibility, having been complicit therein,” the letter reads.
It added any change involving Iranian nuclear sites would be communicated to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
Araghchi's remarks follow a CNN report Tuesday that described the U.S. as having “new intelligence suggesting that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.” Israel has not acknowledged any preparations, though officials up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have repeatedly threatened to strike Iran's nuclear sites to prevent it from being able to obtain a nuclear weapon, should it choose to pursue one.
Israel and Iran have been archrivals in the Mideast for decades.
Araghchi's warning come as the U.S. and Iran are due to meet Friday in Rome for their fifth round of negotiations over a possible deal that would see Tehran limit or end its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
The U.S. will be again represented in the talks by Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Michael Anton, the State Department's policy planning director.
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Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
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