Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi tells Al Jazeera the Iranian armed forces don’t fear the prospect of a US ground operation.

“We are waiting for them,” he said. “I don’t think they’d dare to do such a thing. There will be a lot of strength waiting for them,” Araghchi adds. “But we are not the ones who started this war. We defended ourselves and we did so with strength.

“The casualties they’ve faced in their assets, to their personnel, to their radars in the region, to their aircraft, you saw what happened to their AWACS (airborne early warning and control system) aircraft, or to their refuelling tankers,” he adds.

“We know very well how to defend ourselves. In a ground war, we can do it even better. We are completely ready to confront any sort of ground attack. We hope they do not make such a mistake.”