Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had a stern warning for the United States and its allies during an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Speaking to journalist Fareed Zakaria on Wednesday, Amir-Abdollahian blamed the U.S. and Israel for increased hostilities by Iran-backed groups in the region.
Amir-Abdollahian specifically pointed to the United States' failure to recertify then withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) during President Donald Trump's administration in 2017.
"If they talk to us, treat us respectfully, we will do the same thing," he said. "But anything unconstructive, the unfriendly, the behaviors of the United States, we will retaliate to them. It will be in the favor of the peace and security of the world if the United States would become less hostile, would become cooperative instead of confrontational.
"It [the JCPOA] created commitments and obligations for all the parties. That deal was turned into an official and a recognized resolution and the U.N. Security Council, but it was the United States that broke, broke the deal, broke the promise for us."
However, he stopped short of placing all of the blame on the Trump administration.
"You know, when the nuclear agreement was finalized, they, they, they kept violating it from the administration of [President Barack] Obama," Amir-Abdollahian said. "And the worst mistake, the worst decision was made by Trump. There is no difference between [President Joe] Biden, Obama and Trump."
Mick Mulroy, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, retired CIA officer and U.S. Marine, as well as an ABC News national security and defense analyst, said Iran poses a risk for a continued nuclear arms race in the region.
"It's clear that they have no interest in returning to negotiations [or] returning to the JCPOA," Mulroy told Newsweek via text message Wednesday. "Taken together, there is a risk that we will have a nuclear arms race in the region, and a nuclear armed Iran at a time when conflict is expanding in the region and tensions are growing."
Newsweek reached out to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
While decrying the deaths of women and children "anywhere in the world," Amir-Abdollahian insisted that current tensions are not "rooted on what happened on the seventh of October (2023)," when Iran-backed Hamas launched its initial attacks against Israel.
"Hamas is a Palestinian liberation group that has been fighting against occupation to liberate the occupied territories of Palestine," he told Zakaria. "They carried out an operation. It is rooted in 75 years ago when Palestine was occupied by the Israeli regime."
Since Hamas' strikes against Israel, more than 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including more than 10,000 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israeli military officials have reported at least 188 soldiers have been killed during the ground invasion of Gaza. About 1,200 people were killed and about 240 hostages were taken after Hamas launched attacks on Israel on October 7.
This month, Iran deployed one of its navy vessels to the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have also launched dozens of missile and drone attacks against international trade vessels in the Red Sea.
The U.S. and its allies have halted many of the Houthi attacks, but on Monday, a missile struck a U.S.-owned ship just off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden. And now, diversions for shipping companies are costing weeks of shipping time as vessels must travel around Africa to avoid the region.
Mulroy said Iran is able to use its proxies to expand a regional crisis, adding that actions by Iran-backed Hezbollah, based on the Israel-Lebanon border, could spark additional conflicts.
"Hezbollah is the most significant concern and the most capable militarily," he said.
Amir-Abdollahian told Zakaria that "an end to the genocide in Gaza will lead to an end of military actions and crises in the region.
"The security of the Red Sea is tied to the developments in Gaza, and everyone will suffer if Israel's crimes in Gaza do not stop....All the [resistance] fronts will remain active."
On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department formally announced the decision to again label the Iran-backed Houthis as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" organization.
Mulroy said Wednesday's designation was the right thing to do. However, it isn't likely to stop the group's actions.
"Their actions in using violence against unarmed civilian commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden warrant this," he said, adding, "This action is unlikely to deter the Houthis or Iran, so we will likely continue to see attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, and we will continue to see the U.S. and our allies in the coalition attempting to stem the flow of weapons into Yemen from Iran and eliminating the weapons in Yemen before they launch."
Update 1/17/24, 6:05 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include additional comments from Mick Mulroy.
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