Aletho News

Araghchi: Military intervention cannot create security; coercion cannot bring peace

Press TV – September 19, 2026

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says military intervention cannot create security and coercion cannot bring peace, calling for a fundamental shift from militarism and intervention toward sustainable development, respect for national sovereignty, and lasting peace.

Addressing the “Calling for a Global U-Turn: Recentering Development, Reclaiming Humanity, Restoring Justice in a Crazi(er) World” conference at the 2026 Global Town Hall hosted by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia on Saturday, Araghchi said decades of foreign intervention, military pressure, and endless wars in West Asia have demonstrated that military intervention does not create security and coercion does not lead to peace.

The tragedy of Gaza and the ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli regime are among the clearest and most horrific manifestations of this failed pattern, Araghchi said.

He warned that a dangerous pattern has emerged in which military force is no longer being used as a last resort, but as a permanent mechanism for reshaping the political and security landscape of the region.

Under such circumstances, aggression becomes normalized, escalation becomes institutionalized, and destruction turns from a consequence of war into a tool for advancing political objectives, he said.

Araghchi described the US and Israeli military action against Iran as part of this broader pattern, calling it illegal, unjust, and aggressive and pointing out that it occurred without prior provocation.

He also referred to targeted assassination campaigns against Iranian officials, threats against political figures, violations of national sovereignty, and impunity for acts of aggression, saying the failure of the international community to respond effectively to such actions would gradually erode the boundaries established by international law.

Referring to the killing of 168 students in an attack on a school in Minab, southern Iran, Araghchi said the victims should not be reduced to numbers in war statistics.

Behind each of these lost lives, there was a family, a future and a life, he said, asking, “When do we say enough is enough?”

Araghchi said international law could not be upheld if it were ignored whenever the interests of major powers demanded it, adding that human rights could not be called universal if they were treated as an inherent right for some nations and a conditional privilege for others.

He stressed that the answer was not abandoning multilateralism, but establishing real, effective and fair multilateralism.

The foreign minister called for a shift from militarism to sustainable development, interventionism to respect for national sovereignty, collective punishment to protection of civilians, selective accountability to universal justice, and endless wars to lasting peace.

He also stressed that lasting security in West Asia could not be dictated from outside the region.

Regional security must belong to the region itself, Araghchi said, arguing that regional countries should be able to discuss security, stability, development, and their shared future and find solutions without foreign intervention.

He said Iran believed sustainable security could be achieved through dialogue, confidence-building, cooperation, and mutual respect among regional countries rather than through the military presence of foreign powers and the imposition of their will.

Araghchi concluded that the international community faced a historic choice between continuing militarism, intervention, and endless conflict and changing course toward development, human dignity, justice, and respect for international law.

The time for this is not tomorrow or some indefinite future; the time is now, he said.

September 19, 2026 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Wars for Israel | Human rights, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, United States, Zionism