Iran on Tuesday denounced “baseless claims” made by United States President Donald Trump, calling Washington “the largest sponsor of terrorism”.
Addressing Israel’s Knesset on Monday ahead of joining an international peace summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump said that Iran wants to reach a peace deal with the US “even if they said, ‘We don’t want to make a deal,’”.
In a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA, the foreign ministry said: “The US, as the world’s largest generator of terrorism and supporter of the terrorist and genocidal Zionist (Israeli) regime, has no moral authority to level accusations against others.”
“The repetition of false claims regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme can in no way justify the joint crimes of the US and the Zionist regime” in violating Iran’s soil, the ministry said.
Israel launched a surprise attack on Tehran on June 13, targeting military, nuclear, and civilian sites as well as senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.
Tehran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes, while the US bombed three Iranian nuclear sites. The 12-day conflict came to a halt under a US-sponsored ceasefire that took effect on June 24.
The ministry called for holding Washington accountable for its role “in the impunity” of Israel, “including by preventing any effective action against Israel in the UN Security Council and obstructing international judicial processes aimed at prosecuting Israeli criminals.”
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable. The first phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas came into force on Friday.