Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has taken to social media to castigate the US for its war of “aggression”, and to challenge Washington’s own narrative that its attacks on Iran were a case of “self-defence,” Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on social media, Baqaei highlights a US State Department document justifying the war, which stated that: “The United States engaged in this conflict at the request of and in the collective self-defence of its Israeli ally, as well as in the exercise of the United States’ own inherent right of self-defence”.

“Self-defence against what?” Baqaei asked.

“Was there any ‘armed attack’ by Iran to justify ‘self-defence’? Definitely not!”

“So this was absolutely NOT ‘self-defence’ — it was an act of AGGRESSION against the nation of Iran.”