CNN World 4 hr 54 min ago - Iran foreign minister warns US strikes will have "everlasting consequences" From CNN’s Jessie Yeung

 CNN World

4 hr 54 min ago 

Iran foreign minister warns US strikes will have "everlasting consequences"

From CNN’s Jessie Yeung

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi following a meeting with the E3 group of European ministers in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi following a meeting with the E3 group of European ministers in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday. Sedat Suna/Getty Images

Iran’s foreign minister has condemned the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, warning that they will have “everlasting consequences.”

“The events this morning are outrageous and will have everlasting consequences,” Abbas Araghchi said in a post on X, adding that Iran “reserves all options to defend its sovereignty, interest, and people.”

“The United States, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, has committed a grave violation of the UN Charter, international law and the (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) by attacking Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations,” he wrote.

Iran has spent decades developing its nuclear program and sees it as a source of national pride and sovereignty. It has maintained that the program is solely for peaceful energy purposes.

Nuclear plants require a fuel called uranium – and according to the UN nuclear watchdog, no other country has the kind of uranium that Iran currently does without also having a nuclear weapons program. That has fueled suspicions that Iran isn’t being fully transparent about its intentions.