Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has rejected a recent joint statement by the United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), affirming that IRan’s national security is not up for negotiation.

“There is no doubt that Iran, more than any other party, is concerned with the collective security of the region,” he writes on X.

“If the Gulf Cooperation Council believes that the solution to these concerns is to seek refuge with the greatest violator of regional security, then it defeats its own purpose. It is a bitter irony and a discouraging sign that no lessons have been learned from the painful experiences of recent times.”

Baghaei adds that Iran’s “southern neighbours” should be asked why they themselves “violated the principle of good neighbourliness and the fundamental rules of international law by assisting in the act of aggression against a fellow Muslim neighbour, and why they allowed their territory to be used against Iran or missiles to be launched from it”.

He questions why the GCC is ignoring the purchase and stockpiling of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of advanced weaponry, repeated acts of aggression by Israel against countries in the region and its nuclear arsenal, which is “entirely outside any form of international oversight”.

“It should be clear to everyone that Iran’s military capabilities are the guarantor of the Iranian nation’s inherent right to legitimate self-defence against aggression and criminal acts, while at the same time serving as a source of peace and stability in the region,” Baghaei writes.

“The country’s national security and dignity are not subject to negotiation or conditionality. Just as the inherent right of legitimate self-defence can never be a subject of negotiations, the means of exercising that right cannot be a matter for compromise with any party,” he adds.