Iran will immediately reciprocate if the United States honors its commitments under an interim deal signed in June, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Tuesday.
He made his comments at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek after the first exchange of direct attacks in the U.S.-Iran conflict since late July, with the U.S. striking Larak Island and Iran then launching attacks on two U.S. air bases in Jordan.
"I am stating clearly that if the U.S. returns to its commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately reciprocate," Pezeshkian was quoted as saying by state media.
He was referring to an interim deal signed in June between Tehran and Washington in efforts to end the war, which started with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. The deal quickly unraveled amid disagreements over its implementation.
Tehran has repeatedly said it will allow free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global oil supplies, only if Washington implements the terms of the agreement.
Pezeshkian said in Bishkek Monday that war was in no one's interest and that Tehran was still open to a negotiated solution in its conflict with Washington.
"We continue to strive for a path of agreement and understanding and we believe that continuing the war is neither in our interest, nor in the interest of the region," he said, adding "the solution to the existing problems is dialogue and cooperation."
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also urged the US to "return to its commitments and to what their president signed."
"In that case, everything can be put back on the right track," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, however, told Fox News "there will be a response" to the Iranian attacks but told reporters in the Oval Office Monday that the renewed strikes did not signal a return to full-scale war.
After six months of conflict, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping Hormuz closed and the U.S. persisting with a naval counterblockade of Iran.
"We're going to hit them hard," Trump said, according to a Fox News reporter who spoke to him briefly. "There will be a response."
Earlier Trump had called Iran "a Failed Nation," saying on social media that its military was decimated, its finances were crumbling "and their leadership is in total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country."
Despite traffic remaining throttled six months on, Trump has claimed the U.S. navy has "total control" of the strait and has even called it U.S. territory, with Washington last week announcing it had completed clearing explosives from the waterway.
Iran, however, insists it is in charge of the sea lane. The Revolutionary Guards said Monday a "rogue" oil tanker caught fire near the strait after it hit two mines while attempting to transit an "illegal route."
The U.S. military called the claim "disinformation," saying: "No ships have hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz."
Mediators, meanwhile, have tried for months to broker an end to the war, but an earlier truce and memorandum of understanding fell apart.
Sporadic attacks resumed, but ultimately tapered off, with the US last striking Iran on July 29, after having attacked Iran for 13 consecutive nights earlier that month.
With diplomacy stalled, Iran's foreign minister Monday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of tricking Washington into going to war.
"In Hebrew, Netanyahu openly crows that he suckered the US administration into a war on Iran on behalf of Israel," Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. "In English, he praises POTUS' leadership. Serpent."
