Iran does not plan to go to war, but is prepared for a possible war.
This is what the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, says at a conference for foreign ambassadors in Tehran on Monday, writes the AFP news agency.
The announcement comes after US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US military is exploring far-reaching options for taking action against the regime in Iran.
The background is that several hundred civilians have been reported killed during recent weeks' demonstrations in the country.
- The Islamic Republic of Iran is not looking for war, but is fully prepared for war, says Abbas Araghchi.
- We are also ready to negotiate, but these negotiations must be fair with equal rights and based on mutual respect.
According to the human rights organization HRANA, almost 500 protesters have been killed during the protests in Iran. They began on December 28 and stemmed from dissatisfaction with the high inflation in the country.
Since then, the demonstrations have come to be about a general dissatisfaction with the Iranian clerical rule.
Trump said Sunday that Iran's leadership has contacted the US administration to seek what the president described as negotiation.
- A meeting is being set up. They want to negotiate, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The demonstrations have put the Iranian clerical government under tremendous pressure. The clerical regime has ruled Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Along the way, Reza Pahlavi, who is the eldest son of Iran's last shah, has shown his support for the protesters.
His father, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, was the head of Iran's monarchy until 1979, when the monarchy was overthrown and he and his family were forced into exile.
Reza Pahlavi has called on the protesters to continue the protests.
- I am proud of you, he wrote on Facebook on Friday.
However, it is probably very few Iranians who have seen Pahlavi's post, because there have been nationwide internet outages in Iran since Thursday.
