Today is the eighth day of the American-Israeli axis of aggression against Iran. In a flagrant violation of Iran's territorial integrity and national sovereignty, they have launched, as of Saturday 28 February, an unprovoked, unwarranted act of aggression against my country. They started this merciless aggression by targeting Iran's Supreme Leader's compound at the heart of the capital, Tehran. The leader, also a highly respected Shia religious jurist across the region and beyond, was martyred along with a number of his family members, including his 14-month-old granddaughter on the 10th day of the holy month of Ramadan.

At the same time, they launched massive air and missile strikes across Iran against military and civilian infrastructure. In just one case, they struck an elementary school in Minab, south-western Iran, where 165 innocent schoolgirls and 26 teachers were brutally slaughtered.

It is now clear that the U.S./Israeli targeting of this elementary school was deliberate and pre-planned. A detailed investigative report, based on satellite imagery, strike patterns, and geolocation analysis, has demonstrated that the attack directly struck the civilian school building during class hours. The purpose was to preoccupy Iran's armed forces and emergency response capacity so that the aggressors could subsequently target other strategic sites.

The military aggression continues, and many civilian sites have been targeted, resulting in massive loss of innocent life and destruction of civilian infrastructure.

This renewed aggression was imposed on the Iranian nation while Iran and the United States were engaged in a diplomatic process. The foreign minister of Oman, acting as mediator, had announced that "significant progress" had been achieved in the latest round of negotiations on Thursday 26 February in Geneva.

This attack represents yet another betrayal of diplomacy and demonstrates that the US has zero respect for the basics of diplomacy. Despite being fully aware of the hostile intentions of the United States and the apartheid regime of Israel, Iran once again entered into negotiations to leave no room for doubt before the international community – to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Iranian people's cause and to expose the baselessness of any pretext for aggression. These events show that the United States does not truly believe in diplomacy and instead seeks to impose its will on other nations.

The Iranian nation, proud and resilient, has proven that it does not yield to threats or foreign intervention. The millennia-old history of Iranian civilisation bears witness to the fact that Iranians have never bowed to aggression or domination.

For example, about 900 years ago, Farid al-Din Attar — one of the greatest poets in Iranian history — recounts in his book Tadhkirat al-Awliya that when Bayazid Bastami uttered the ecstatic phrase, "Subhani, ma a‘zama sha'ni" ("Glory be to me, how great is my station"), some accused him of heresy and attacked him with knives. Yet, as the story goes, with every stab, instead of Bayazid bleeding, it was the attackers' own bodies from which blood flowed.

Iran is like Bayazid in this story. History shows that despite every blow struck against it, it is ultimately the aggressors — the ones who wield the knives — who are erased, while Iran endures and remains. This is what can be called the theory of Iran's continuity amid super-crises and foreign aggression — a pattern repeatedly demonstrated throughout the many invasions and attacks Iran has endured over the past several centuries.

The airstrikes carried out by the Zionist regime and the United States against Iran constitute a violation of Article 2(4) of the Charter of the United Nations and amount to a clear act of armed aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran. United Nations experts stated in their statement on March 4 that this act of aggression is "unlawful". Furthermore, the assassination of the Supreme Leader and other Iranian officials represents a manifest violation of the immunity of state officials and of international conventions, including the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons.

Responding to this aggression is Iran's lawful and legitimate right under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. The Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will employ all necessary capabilities to counter this criminal aggression and repel the enemy's hostility. This right shall continue until the aggression ceases and the matter is properly addressed by the United Nations Security Council. As the state acting in self-defence, Iran will determine the measures that are necessary and proportionate to this armed attack.

In exercising this right, Iran had no option but to target certain U.S. military facilities in the region. These defensive operations are not directed against host countries but are undertaken solely in defence of Iran. The facilities targeted were used by the United States to prepare and launch military attacks against Iran.

Iran fully respects the territorial integrity and political independence of its neighbouring countries. Every state has a responsibility, under international law and the principle of good neighbourliness, not to allow its territory, airspace, or facilities to be used for acts of aggression against Iran. As expressly affirmed by the authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran, any point of origin, base, or territorial platform from which acts of aggression against Iran are initiated—irrespective of the state in which such forces may be stationed—shall, consistent with Article 3(f) of the Annex to General Assembly Resolution 3314 (XXIX) on the Definition of Aggression, be regarded as a lawful military objective in the exercise of Iran's inherent right of self-defence under Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. We need concrete and objective assurances that no further aggression will originate from US facilities located within these countries.

Iran underscores the critical responsibility of the United Nations and its Security Council to take immediate action in response to this breach of international peace and security. We call upon the Secretary-General, the President of the Security Council, and its members to fulfill their duties without delay.

All Member States of the United Nations—particularly countries in the region and the Islamic world, members of the Non-Aligned Movement, and all governments committed to international peace and security—are expected to condemn this act of aggression and to take urgent and collective measures in response. States must exercise vigilance and not be drawn into the designs of the aggressors.

Our message to the international community is clear: these acts of aggression and the ongoing harrowing crimes signal an unprecedented erosion of the international legal order. Inaction in the face of such unlawful conduct will not only embolden the United States and the Israeli regime but will also inflict lasting and irreparable damage upon the foundations of the international legal order.

The world is at a critical juncture. It shall decide whether it wants to be ruled by merciless bullying and force or whether it wants to save the rule of law from vanishing.This will not be the last unlawful resort to force unless the international community acts decisively and responsibly.

States must not adopt a policy of indifference and appeasement. Failure to uphold fundamental principles of international law is a recipe for a dark global dictatorship that will bury the United Nations and annihilate the very basic tenets of humanity.

Every nation, every Muslim, every person of human conscience, has a responsibility to act. The world must wake up before it is too late. Otherwise, similar acts of aggression and crimes will unfold within your own borders.

The Iranian nation is defending itself by all means. We fight back in this unjust brutal war of aggression against two nuclear-armed regimes.

This is an unjust war imposed on a civilization. History will judge you all. Those who choose to take sides with the aggressors as well as those who prefer to keep silent in the face of this brutal injustice will all be regarded as accomplices.

Be on the right side of history and oppose this cruel, unjust war.

Author: Esmaeil Baghael iHamaneh, spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry.