Turkey’s Fidan says he held talks with US envoy Witkoff on Iran

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Friday that US threats against Iran contradicted Washington’s stated desire for negotiations, adding that military action would not produce results.

“There is a contradiction in the attitude and stance of the USA,” Araghchi said at a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

“A military attack or military intervention is not an alternative,” he said, referring to US action last June. “They did this and it did not reach any result.”

“While they are threatening us, they want to continue negotiations,” Araghchi said, adding that repeating military pressure would lead to the same outcome.

He said the US had sought negotiations through intermediaries but warned talks could not begin under pressure.

“You do not start negotiations with threats,” Araghchi said. “First of all, they should leave aside their threats.”

He added that Iran remained open to diplomacy. “If they want to negotiate with a fair and equitable understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran has never left diplomacy aside, and it is not going to do so,” he said.

Iran’s army said on Friday it stood “powerfully” alongside the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to confront terrorism, after the European Union designated the Guards as a terrorist organization.

In a statement, the army accused European countries of backing Iraq during the 1980–1988 war, saying they provided “chemical weapons and advanced military equipment” to Saddam Hussein’s forces and later gave refuge to militant groups.

“Today, to please the United States and the Zionist regime, they have placed the largest anti-terror organization in the region and the world on a fabricated and self-made terrorist list,” the army said.

It added that Iran’s armed forces “will continue to stand against terrorism supported by the West.”

An Iranian lawmaker warned on Friday that Iran could target US interests beyond American military bases, responding to the presence of US naval forces in the region.

“If the United States and Donald Trump are worried about the lives of their soldiers, they should withdraw their forces from the region,” said Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for parliament’s national security commission, according to state media.

Rezaei said Iran’s objectives were “not limited to US bases” and that “all US interests are within range,” adding that Iran’s armed forces had the ability to target American interests, assets and troops.

President Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday that Turkey was ready to play a facilitator role between Iran and the US to help ease tensions, the Turkish presidency said.

“President Erdogan emphasised that Turkey was ready to take up a facilitator role between Iran and the United States to ease tensions and resolve issues,” the presidency said in a statement on X.

It added that Erdogan would also receive Iran’s foreign minister during his visit to Turkey for talks with his Turkish counterpart.

A senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned on Friday that Tehran would take immediate countermeasures after the European Union designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.

Ali Shamkhani said in an X post that the West was misusing the concept of terrorism, accusing the US and Europe of double standards.

“The West doesn’t define terrorism, it uses it,” Shamkhani wrote, adding that labeling the Guards while backing what he described as violence elsewhere showed how the concept had been distorted. “Countermeasures will be immediate,” he said.