This July 20, 2026, article by CAMERA’s Shay Khatiri appeared in the Middle East Forum Observer.
Iranian journalist Javad Mogooyi has published the first of a multi-part interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, recorded before the resumption of hostilities with the United States. Araghchi narrates the prelude to the conflict, up to the ceasefire, which he claims represented a strategic victory. Along the way, however, he and Mogooyi give valuable insight and intelligence.
Araghchi claims that the war occurred because Tehran refused concessions that would limit uranium enrichment, even for a short period. The host asked why Iran refused to agree to even a temporary concession until President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leave office. Araghchi said he neither wanted to give up “the country’s honor” nor create a precedent in which the Islamic Republic made concessions in response to force.
Araghchi said that he was certain that the United States and Israel would attack Iran. “The armed forces should not put their hopes in me,” he advised. “The negotiations were for closure so that nobody, domestically or internationally, would say if you had negotiated there wouldn’t be war. We were certain that there would be war. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind this tactic too.”
(Read the rest of CAMERA’s July 20, 2026, Middle East Forum Observer article here.)