 Both countries say they are outraged, both countries believe this is a gross violation of their sovereignty, both countries have protested, recalled ambassadors, why are you doing this? In the name of God, the most beneficent and the most merciful, with Pakistan and Iraq, we enjoy very good relations with both of the countries we have talked and agreed for several times on the necessity of fighting terrorism and providing securities to our very long-shared borders or agreements between us. What happened yesterday? Actually two days back, in a real of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region had to do with the elements and the agents of Mossad of the Israeli regime, we carried out, they carried out operations inside Iran, terrorist attacks and Israel took responsibility for them, especially there was one against one of our facilities, and it's not a Republic of Iran, if any kind of action that is carried out by the Zionist regime against our people, the Republic of Iran will respond to it vigorously, we hit the Mossad base in one spot in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and we hit it with precision missiles, this does not mean we hit and targeted Iraq, we targeted Israel that remains to be a common enemy of both of us, but on Pakistan. Say they were given no notice of it, none of this squares with the idea of good relations with Iraq, this is a country that you have claimed to have very friendly relations with, it seems a hostile act towards a friendly government, that is how Iraq is reading it. We respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Iraq, we had the intelligence from our security forces about the place and the spot that was targeted in Kurdistan of Iraq, that the intelligence is undisputable and the elements of Mossad and the Mossad elements and agents and those that had a hand in making Iran insecure and took responsibility for that, I repeat we retaliated and they were targeted by us and our security people are examining the matter and sharing information with the security advisers of Iraq and our information confirmed that the spot belonged to Mossad and there was no mistake that was made by us and on Pakistan, none of the, about what happened in Iraq, we have a security agreement between us and according to this, the government and the local people in the Kurdistan of Iraq according to this are obligated to provide security to our borders and what we did, what was within the confines of this agreement, security agreement and the legitimate right that we have to defend ourselves and any kind of abuse of the Israeli regime and taking advantage of the Kurdistan region against us and Pakistan, none of the nationals of the friendly and the brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by the missiles and the drones of Iran, there is this group so-called Jashul Adl which is an Iranian terrorist group and they are somehow, they have taken shelter in some parts of the Sisan and Balochistan province of Pakistan and for several times we have talked to a lot of officials in Pakistan and the security forces there, they carried out some operations in Iran, especially in the Roske police station, they killed our security personnel, we responded accordingly, we only targeted Iranian terrorists on the soil of Pakistan before this, I talked to my colleague the honorable foreign minister of Pakistan and I assured him that we do respect the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Pakistan, also those of Iraq but we don't allow our national security to be compromised and to be played with and we have no reservation, no hesitations when it comes to our national interest and those terrorist groups inside Pakistan and those that are affiliated to Israeli regime and the Kurdistan region of Iraq, what we did was actually in line with the security of Pakistan, Iraq and the whole region, we believe that the security of Iraq and Pakistan are the security of the Syrian public of Iran. Pakistan and government both disagree with what you said and minister let me ask you, you came on my program and my colleague interviewed you in October 29th and she asked you, do you want the water spread and you said no, we do not want the water spread, we do not want escalation, since then Hezbollah has launched attacks against Israel, the Houthis are attacking ships in the Red Sea, you have attacked Iraq, you have attacked Pakistan, it certainly seems like the actions of Iran and its allies do not suggest that you are trying to keep this war from spreading, it seems as though you are encouraging an escalation. I agree with you that in the west of Asia, right now we are witnessing the enlargement of the crisis and the tensions but these tensions are not rooted on what happened in 7th of October, Hamas is a Palestinian liberation group that has been fighting against occupation to liberate the occupied territories of Palestine, they carried out an operation. Of course, we never agree with or approve of the killing of women and children anywhere in the world but I want to tell you that it is not rooted on what happened on 7th of October, it is rooted in 75 years ago when Palestine was occupied by the Israeli regime. From the very beginning of the start of the Israeli genocide or war in Gaza, which followed the 7th of October operation, we gave warnings that if they attacks the war crimes and genocide against Gaza and the West Bank do not stop, the war will spread out, it will become a larger, it doesn't mean that we wanted to play a role in this enlargement. No, it was because we had a proper understanding of the situation and the conditions in the region and as a result of this some of those groups that you mentioned, they started to defend Gaza and the United States made two strategic mistakes. The first one, they threw the weight behind the Israeli regime's war and genocide and they supported it. It has been unrelenting and it has continued up to now. The second mistake was that they brought the conflict to the Red Sea and Yemenis. They started this by killing some of the people in Yemeni boats. First, they killed Yemeni people in the boats and maritime security is something that is very important to us and Yemen also cares about this but the security in the Red Sea is now very much tied to the developments in Gaza. We will all be at loss if it will be to our detriment if the killings and the attacks and genocide in Gaza do not stop because if it happens then the crisis will persist. Explain to me that you felt Iran had the right to respond to what you described as terror attacks and terrorist groups that were attacking Iran and you retaliated in Iraq and in Pakistan. Why does Israel not have the right to retaliate to the October 7th terrorist attack? What we did against Mossad base in Kurdistan and also against Jais al-Adl, the terrorist group inside Pakistan, they have nothing to do with the situation in Gaza but the Yemeni front terrorism and the Israelis said they are retaliating against a terror attack on them. We don't consider Hamas a terrorist group. Hamas is a Palestinian liberation movement that has been formed against the Israeli occupation. We cannot erase history. For 75 years we have had the occupation of Palestine. This is a reality. What about the rights of Palestine? On innocent women, elderly people, civilians, raped, used rape as an instrument of war. You say you condemn all this presumably because it is terrorist activity. Doesn't Israel have the right to respond? What about Palestinians? Are they not human beings? What about the rights? Even Israeli regime doesn't even accept the UN resolutions about the restoration of the rights of the Palestinians and the formation of the Palestinian state. They have all been ignored by the Israeli regime. According to the international law, when a war breaks out, there should be two things. One is differentiation and proportionality. The officials of the Israeli regime claimed that on the operation on the 7th of October, 1,200 Israelis were killed. There has been this retaliation. They did not differentiate between the civilians and the military. The word has seen that more than 16,000 children have been killed, infants, women. Up to now, more than 24,000 Palestinians have been killed and proportionality. They have not been observing it. 1,200 Israelis were killed. There has been this retaliatory attack by the Israeli regime. Do you think 24,000? That is 10 times more than the number. Why don't you see it as a terrorist attack? Israel is an upper tide and occupying regime, but Hamas is a liberation movement. I repeat, we don't welcome the killing of women and children anywhere in the world, but the solution is not a military one. They have to respect the rise of the Palestinians. The Red Sea and these ships. Is there a situation in which Iran would get involved and start blocking the ships in the Straits of Hormuz? First off, we do care about the maritime security and the shipping safety. Our exports, our oil exports are done through by the sea. So the security of the Red Sea and Oman Sea and the Persian Gulf are very, very important to us. We benefit from it. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to export our oil. Secondly, we have information that these days the Yemenis and the Saudis are nearing a real substantive peace agreement. We believe that when the U.S. got involved in it and it is not going to be good news for this agreement, we will all benefit from maritime security and the Yemenis also believe that. What happened? It has to do with the genocidal war of the Israeli regime against the people of Gaza and the Yemenis defending the Palestinians. If the genocidal Gaza stops, then it will lead to the end of other crises and attacks in the region. You didn't answer whether you will Iran start involve itself in blocking any ships. I think your answer is no. We have always been on the positive side of the developments in the region. You should not forget that in the past years, and in order to fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria and in the region, some of our best military attachés were killed and martyred. The security of the region is our own security. Do you believe that Hezbollah is going to get more involved in more attacks and counterattacks in Israel? In the last 100 days, I held talks twice with Mr. Secretary General of Hezbollah. 48 hours before the humanitarian ceasefire, the temporary one in Gaza in a meeting with Hezbollah, I asked him, Mr. Secretary General, if Israel's attacks against Gaza stop, do the attacks of Hezbollah stop too? He said yes, because we got involved in this somehow because we wanted to defend the people of Palestine. And if they stop, we will stop too. The whole world witnessed that in about six days when there was this ceasefire, there was not even one bullet that was fired at Israel, and they were committed. They remain committed to the ceasefire. But in the last few days, something new happened. Since 2006, there was this unwritten agreement that the capitals in Beirut or Tel Aviv were not targeted. They were not targeting each other. But Israel and Gaza had no achievement but killing women and children. But Israel brought the war out of Gaza and they assassinated one of the leaders of Hamas, not in Gaza, but in Beirut. So this has created a new situation. But definitely if the genocide, the war of the Israeli regime, comes to a halt, then it can lead to the stop of other crises and attacks in other parts of the region against Israel. But we should not forget that today Lebanon is somehow involved in the war, in the Red Sea also. And today we see that people in Gaza are under attacks and they're starving in Gaza and the West Bank. This means that the war will go on. So at any moment, it is possible that the severity and intensity of the war will rise. Netanyahu should understand that war is not the solution and they are not going to destroy Hamas by continuing the war. And the Israelis, prisoners will not be released if they continue the war. The solution is very clear, stopping the war, opening up the humanitarian corridors, and stopping the forced displacement of Palestinians towards the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and, of course, the exchange of prisoners. Today the United States is more concerned about how they are going to run Gaza after the war, the post-war Gaza. But in our talks with the different and various Palestinian leaders, there are some ideas there. The most democratic one is that all the Palestinian leaders with all their viewpoints and differences of opinion and having a referendum participated by the Palestinians in both Gaza and West Bank. And naturally, the resistance against occupation, according to what we have heard from the Palestinians, will continue their activities. But about the re-institution of the rights of the Palestinians, it can be done in a democratic way. That is election under supervision of the United Nations. But still, Netanyahu is under the impression that the solution lies in the war and continuing it. And they are, of course, relying upon the United States. All the leaders in our region believe that if the war stops today, 10 minutes later, Netanyahu will fall. And he won't be able to continue the war without the support of the United States. We believe that the political solution is something that everybody has to pay attention to, and we never believe that the war is a solution. About a year ago, I would say, there was reports that Iran and the United States were maybe getting to a point of some kind of revival of the Iran nuclear deal. That conversation is completely closed. And I wondered whether you had any comment on that. Why was it not possible to revive the Iran nuclear deal from your point of view? You see, in Dr. Raisi's administration, I mean, the current administration of the Republic of Iran, we started talks with the European countries and some indirect talks with the United States. And ultimately, these were met with the initiative that was set forth by the kingdom of Oman. And there were these indirect talks with the United States. And there were efforts made by the king of Oman. And they all wanted to bring together and closer everybody that is a party to the nuclear deal. We still welcome any kind of endeavor, any kind of initiative, any kind of a step that will help bring back all the parties to JCPOA to back to their commitments and obligations. There are still some efforts made, some contacts between Iran and the United States. Therefore, we believe that if the American side has enough will and a required will, then we can achieve the deal. And they're coming up with a lot of excuses. One day, they say that we are involved in the Ukrainian war or some domestic purposes, pressures we are facing inside the United States. So you are involved in the Ukraine war? You are supplying the Russians with weapons? A very important point you made and touched upon on Ukraine. We have never, ever provided any drone, any missile to the Russia to be used against Ukraine. Less than 11 months ago, I had an agreement with my counterpart, the Ukrainian foreign minister. I told him, if you claim that Iranian-made drones or weapons are used against you, please give us pieces of evidence. So we agreed that there would be a team comprised of the high-ranking military people from both sides would meet in Oman, in the city of Moskot, the capital of Oman. They discussed the issue for hours. The Ukrainian team did not show any proof. And they said that we will go back to Kiev, we will gather information, proof, evidence, and we will come back in the next round of the meeting. But they didn't give us, they didn't show any kind of proof that Iranian-made drones and weapons are used against them. To Ukraine, the people on the battlefield on both sides refer to the drones that Russians use as Shahid drones. Shahid is the Persian word for martyr. I don't think Shahid is a Russian word. Those drones are Iranian. You see, we have sold Iranian drones to different countries in the region within the framework of our defense cooperation. You know, it is not difficult for any country to copy our drones. We are not responsible for that. But even for that, the Ukrainians have not given us any piece of evidence. My dear colleague, Mr. Farid Zakaria, just we are sensitive about the killing of people, women and children in Gaza, Afghanistan, Syria, in Yemen. We have always condemned these killings. And we believe that war and the killing of civilians and women and children in Ukraine. We condemn that too. And we believe that the solution is never war and fighting than Russia. We have enjoyed a strong relations and ties with Russia. We have asked them several times that have you ever used Iranian-made weapons against Ukrainians? And they have repeatedly told us that we have not made use of any Iranian-made weapons against Ukraine. And up to now, Ukraine is claiming they are making a lot of noise that Iranian drones are being used against them. But they have not given us even one piece of evidence, not no document. For more than three times, I asked Mr. Josep Borrell, with his connections and contacts to encourage Ukrainians to supply them to us. But they have not. This is just a basis allegation. We believe war is not the war, not in Ukraine or in Gaza. When I look at the data, it seems to me that Iran has been able to export more and more oil. Are the sanctions against Iran in place? Are you able to export as much oil as you want? The sanctions imposed on Iran are unilateral. They are illegal. And within the framework of the international law, we consider it our natural right to export our oil and energy. And the United States is not the master or the chieftain of the world to decide about other countries. Those days are over. We defend our rights. And within the framework of the international law, we will continue to do so. It's the events in Gaza. Many people predicted that the Arab countries that had normalized relations with Israel, the UAE, Morocco, would break relations. That has not happened. In fact, Saudi Arabia has talked about, or at least privately there are reports, has talked about continuing its objective to normalize relations with Israel. This seems to leave Iran more and more isolated in the region. First of all, we have not recognized Israel. We believe it's just then occupying powers, 75 years of occupation. This does not create any right for Israel to exist. Mr. Zakaria, for decades, Algeria was occupied by another country. The long occupation of Algeria came to an end, right? So the countries of the region and their foreign interactions and decisions, whatever decision they come up with, is their own business and their own foreign policy. Isolated. Your more and more countries are recognizing you. But we are witnessing that some countries that during the time of Trump and under the pressure from him, they normalized ties with Israel, they have not really benefited from this, and they are now facing more problems. Today, Israel is the one that is isolated, never been dis-isolated. This Republic of Iran is not isolated. This Republic of Iran is the right part, is the positive part of the developments in the region because it's our region, and it is very important to us, the security of the region and the progress in the region. In our administration, we have put very high on our agenda the policy of interacting and cooperating and collaborating with our neighboring countries with all the countries of the world, dialogue and the progress with all the parties, including the western countries. This is something that has come to the attention of our administration. Do you want to see an end to the hostility and conflict with the United States? You still are part of a government that encourages the chant of death to America, calls America the Great Satan, and yet you say you want better relations, you want to return to the nuclear deal. How can these both be true? There's so much state propaganda designed to maintain the hostility, indeed, the rage against the United States. Firstly, anything that we see that is based on mutual respect by the American administration will be welcomed by us, mutual respect. If you're respected, we will respect them. Secondly, the problem that is there is that in the year 2015, we reached a deal with the United States. Remember, JCPOA, the nuclear deal, it created commitments and obligations for all the parties. That deal was turned into an official and a recognized resolution in the UN Security Council. But it was the United States that broke the deal, broke the promise for us. There is no difference between Biden, Obama, and Trump. The deal happened. You guys were still chanting death to America. You still had the trampling on American flag. You still had the Great Satan as a slogan that didn't suggest a desire for better relations. You know, when the nuclear agreement was finalized, they kept violating it from administration of Obama. And the worst mistake, the worst decision was made by Trump. But in our government, we said that we will be ready. We waited for them. We were state-committed to it for a long time. But the United States kept violating the deal. We, in our administration, we also came to some agreements. We were seeing some signs of it that they were still breaking their promises. There were some temporary ones. It seems that it has become a part of the DNA of the American foreign policy. It doesn't make the difference what administration is in power. We want the United States. If they're committed to the deal, we will also be committed to the deal. Mutual respect. If they talk to us, treat us respectfully, we will do the same thing. But anything unconstructive, the unfriendly, the behaviors of the United States, we will retaliate to them. It will be in the favor of the peace and security of the world if the United States would become less hostile, would become cooperative instead of confrontational. Thank you very much. You've been frank as always. I appreciate that. Thank you so much.