Israel and Iran are already at war, according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh yesterday. “The war with Israel has already started,” he told Ma’ariv, reported the Jerusalem Post. “Israel has carried out attacks that were intended to destroy our nuclear program for peaceful purposes. It murdered nuclear scientists and harmed the Iranian people. Iran is accused of terrorism, but there is no good or bad terrorist. The whole crisis in the region is Israel’s fault.” Khatibzadeh later said that Israel had “done everything” to thwart the nuclear talks in Vienna and to cause conflict between Iran and the world powers. He accused the United States of “soft terrorism” by holding up medicine and starving the people of his country.
Asked if he thought a return to the nuclear deal would prevent a military operation by Israel, Khatibzadeh replied: “Israel has severely damaged our research and civilian system. There is talk of an Iranian nuclear threat, but Israel has hundreds of bombs, and it has never signed the [Nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty.”
