The Dictatorship
Iran is receiving ‘military cooperation’ from Russia and China, foreign minister says
Iran is receiving “military cooperation” from Russia and China, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an exclusive interview with MS NOW on Saturday. He also accused the United Arab Emirates of allowing the U.S. to launch attacks on Iran from its territory
Araghchi said Iran has no intention of fully opening the Strait of Hormuz, a tactic that has sent global oil prices soaring. And he downplayed the impact of a recent U.S attack on military installations on Kharg Island, through which 90% of Iran’s oil exports flow.
He vowed that Iran will attack oil facilities across the Persian Gulf if the U.S. targets Iran’s oil infrastructure.
“I think our armed forces have already answered that they would retaliate if our oil and energy infrastructure are attacked,” Araghchi said. “And they will attack any energy infrastructure in the region, which belongs to an American company or an American company is a shareholder. So the reaction would be clear.”
Araghchi called Russia and China Iran’s “strategic partners” and said his country was receiving “military cooperation” from the two U.S. adversaries but declined to elaborate.
“That includes military cooperation,” he said. “I’m not going into the into any details of that, a good cooperation with these countries, politically, economically, even militarily.”
He also defended Iran’s attacks on its neighbors across the Persian Gulf, which the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have said included Iranian strikes on civilian areas. Araghchi accused the United Arab Emirates of allowing the U.S. to launch attacks on Iran from Dubai, Ras Al-Khaimah and other densely populated areas.
“It is clear that they are fired from U.A.E.,” he said, adding it was “dangerous” to “use highly populated areas to launch, you know, rockets against us.”
The U.A.E. responded late Saturday afternoon, saying Araghchi is perpetuating a “confused policy.”
“The UAE has the right to self-defense in the face of this terrorist aggression imposed upon it, yet it continues to prioritize reason and logic,” read an official Emirates statement posted on X, “the country maintaining restraint and seeking an exit for Iran and the region.”
Officials from other Persian Gulf countries have denied that they allow U.S. forces to launch attacks from civilian areas.
Araghchi denied claims from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, had been wounded and “disfigured” in the Israeli and U.S. strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his wife and son.
“There is no problem with the new supreme leader. The system is working,” he said, adding, “Everything is under control.”
Ayman Mohyeldin is a host of “‘The Weekend: Primetime” and an MS NOW political analyst.
David Rohde
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.