"Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran was a blatant act of aggression, a gross violation of all norms of international law, Mariyazov told Mehr News Agency.

"What kind of self-defense can we talk about on the part of Israel if it itself initiated military actions, planned in advance and carried out a massive bombing of Iranian cities, military and civilian facilities and peaceful nuclear enterprises?"

"The particular cynicism of Israel’s actions lies in the fact that its attack on Iran was carried out at a time when Tehran was negotiating with Washington to ease tensions around the Iranian nuclear program, and Iran was ready to agree to mutually acceptable agreement that preserved Iran’s right to enrichment activities and quaranted the peaceful nature of its nuclear program."

"Washington behaved no less cynically. It knew about Israel’s military plans, but not only did nothing to prevent them, but gave green light to Tel Aviv’s actions, expecting that this would become an additional level of pressure on Iran to curtail its nuclear program. Iran certainly has a legitimate right to self-defense in order to cool hot heads in Israel. At the same time an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict could lead to a serious aggravation of the situation in the region with unpredictable consequences."

"Therefore, the international community needs to make urgent efforts to promote a political and diplomatic solution to the conflict."