“Our priority is to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza; any agreement accepted by Hamas will also be recognized by us. The Israeli regime has violated our national security and sovereignty through its recent act of terrorism. We have the legitimate right to self-defense—a matter totally unrelated to the Gaza ceasefire,” said the mission on Friday in response to questions regarding whether Iran will defer responding to Israel’s violation of Iranian national sovereignty.

“However, we hope that our response will be timed and conducted in a manner not to the detriment of the potential ceasefire.”

The mission added, “Direct and intermediary official channels to exchange messages have always existed between Iran and the United States, the details of which both parties prefer to remain untold.”

Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US Department of State, said on Thursday, “I will let all of the countries in the region speak to what diplomatic engagements they might have had with Iran. But obviously, one of the points of the engagements that we have had is to urge countries to pass messages to Iran and urge countries to make clear to Iran that it is very much not in their interests to escalate this conflict, that it is very much not in their interests to launch another attack on Israel.”