(3 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iranian Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon – 03 June 2024
1. Wide of news conference
2. Close of photographers
3. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting Foreign Minister:
"A country that is considered the largest provider of military equipment and weapons to the Israeli entity to commit crimes against the Palestinian people, and its aid assistance to the entity is still ongoing, is unable to present a sincere plan for a ceasefire in Gaza.
4. Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani during news conference
5. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting Foreign Minister:
"If the Americans are honest, then instead of presenting plans under the name of a ceasefire, they should take one step, which is to cut off their aid to the Israeli entity. Once this aid is cut off from the Israeli entity, this entity will not have tools to practice or continue to commit crimes and murder against the Palestinian people, and the war will end automatically. "
6. Close of camera operator
7. Cameras lined up at news conference
8. Close of photographer
9. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Ali Bagheri Kani, Iran’s acting Foreign Minister:
"Regarding your second question, we must take a fact into account, which is that the Israeli entity that enjoys comprehensive American support, The entity which is trapped in the swamp in Gaza, which has been under siege for years and is looking for a way out of this swamp. if it had the basic rationality, shouldn’t put itself in a similar situation with the strong Lebanese resistance."
10. Close of two women attending news conference
11. End of news conference
STORYLINE:
Iran’s acting foreign minister dismissed a Gaza ceasefire deal proposed by US President Joe Biden and warned Israel against launching an all-out war against Lebanon.
Ali Bagheri Kani took part in a press conference in Beirut on Monday, part of his first official diplomatic visit since his predecessor died last month.
Bagheri Kani replaced Hossein Amirabdollahian, a hard-liner close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19 in a mountainous area near Iran’s border with Azerbaijan, along with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and a delegation of other officials.
Tehran, a key backer of the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, backs a number of armed factions in the region, of which Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah is widely seen as the most powerful.
Hezbollah would be Tehran’s first line of defense in case of a direct conflict between Iran and Israel.
Hezbollah has been clashing with Israeli forces along the Lebanon-Israel border since October, against the backdrop of Israel’s war against the allied Hamas group in Gaza.
The cross-border fighting has intensified in recent weeks, since Israel’s incursion into the key town of Rafah in southern Gaza.
“If the Americans are honest, then instead of proposing plans under the name of ceasefire, then they must take one step, which is end all aid to the Israeli entity,” Bagheri Kani said in a news conference at the Iranian embassy in Beirut.
“Only once the aid is cut from the Israeli entity, the entity wont have the tools and ability to commit crimes against the Palestinians and the war will end.”
Hamas said they received the multi-staged proposal that includes freeing the hostages and pouring aid into Gaza along with a path to a permanent cease-fire “positively”, while Israel maintains that Hamas’ military wing and ability to govern the Palestinian enclave must be destroyed in order for the war to end.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/10a404fdc5f84ed2b3af51a1ba1fd2fd
