TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has touched upon Tel Aviv’s message to Iran sent via Russia, warning of possible deception by Tel Aviv.

“This development did not change our field assessments. Our armed forces have remained on full alert and are boosting their capabilities day by day. The odds of the Israeli regime getting engaged in deception are very high, and there is every chance that such announcements are aimed at deception,” he said in a televised interview.

A few days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin said days ago that Israeli leaders had requested him to convey to Iran that they were not seeking further confrontation with Iran and wished to ease tensions.

Tensions between Iran and Israel soared after the occupation regime launched an unprovoked aggression on Iran on June 13, which triggered a 12-day war. The regime assassinated top commanders and nuclear scientists and also killed hundreds of civilians across the country. The United States also intervened, bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a breach of international law.

The 12-day war came to a stop on June 24, after crushing retaliatory Iranian strikes targeting both Israeli and U.S. positions forced Israel to halt its aggression and enter a unilateral ceasefire.

Addressing the Central Asia-Russia summit in Dushanbe on Thursday, Putin said that Israeli authorities had asked him to deliver a message to Iran.

“We continue confidence-based contacts with Israel and receive signals from Israeli leadership asking that this be conveyed to our Iranian friends that Israel intends and is determined to further resolve the issue, and is not interested in any form of confrontation,” he said.

Elsewhere in his remarks to national TV, Araghchi said the ceasefire agreement in Gaza does not strip the international community of its responsibility to bring the Israeli regime to justice.

“As stressed in a statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, this [truce] agreement and ceasefire, though agreed by resistance groups, do not relieve the international community of its responsibility to punish criminals in Gaza,” said Abbas Araghchi in a televised interview.

He said those who committed crimes in Gaza must be brought to justice and held accountable to the international community.

Meanwhile, he reiterated Iran’s support for any move that would stop the killing of people.

“We have always backed any plan or action that would lead to a halt to crimes against the people of Gaza and stop this genocide,” said the foreign minister.

“In all international circles, in our bilateral ties with other countries, in the talks we had, we always stressed that measures should be adopted to stop these criminals,” the top diplomat noted.

“For now, the first phase has been carried out so far, the military operation has stopped, the initial withdrawal has been done. Of course, still more than half of the Gaza territory is under the occupation of Israeli forces and there is doubt over whether or not the withdrawal will become complete in the future,” he said.

Araghchi then referred to the issue of talks with the United States.

“[US envoy Steve] Witkoff specifically sent a message that he was prepared for direct talks with Iran. Our response was that, like in the past when talks were conducted within a multilateral framework in the presence of a number of countries, we were ready to hold negotiations within such a framework on the condition that the three European countries be present in the meeting, too, and that Mr. Grossi take part in the talks as well due to the technical nature of the talks and the issue of nuclear materials, but Mr. Witkoff rejected the condition and refused to take part in such a meeting,” said the top diplomat.