ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
Now, in response to the U.S. attacks, Iran has been gathering support from its allies, including Russia and China. Possible Iranian retaliation could include closing a key oil shipping lane, and it kept up attacks today on Israel. NPR's Jane Arraf joins us from Amman, Jordan. Hi, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Hi, Andrew.
LIMBONG: The U.S. strikes were a huge blow against Iran. How has Iranian leadership responded?
ARRAF: Well, we don't know where Iran's supreme leader is. And given the U.S. and Israeli threats to assassinate him, that's perhaps understandable. But Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, was in Istanbul, where he was talking to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. He said the path to diplomacy should always be open, but he also said Iran wouldn't negotiate under attack. And here, he says, the U.S. essentially blew up negotiations.
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ABBAS ARAGHCHI: The world must not forget that it was the United States, which, in the midst of a process to forge a diplomatic outcome, betrayed diplomacy.
ARRAF: He says the U.S. did that by backing Israeli attacks on Iran while Iran was holding indirect talks through Oman with the United States.
LIMBONG: Now, Iran has been weakened over the past two years, but it is not without friends. What are those friends doing?
ARRAF: Yeah, well, Araghchi, the foreign minister, was heading to Moscow. He's scheduled to meet with President Vladimir Putin tomorrow. Here he is.
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ARAGHCHI: Russia is a friend of Iran. And we enjoy a strategic partnership, and we always consult with each other and coordinate our positions.
ARRAF: Now, one of the Western concerns, of course, is that this U.S. attack could actually further unite two big U.S. enemies, Iran and Russia.
LIMBONG: Has Iran responded to yesterday's attack militarily?
ARRAF: It says it launched 27 missiles at Israel after the U.S. attack, and it said the targets included Ben Gurian airport and research facilities. The airport didn't appear to have been hit as aviation authorities said it would open tomorrow for evacuation flights. It's often difficult to know exactly what has been hit in Israel, though, because the government imposes a gag order on media that prevents it from identifying military and security sites. But Iran, Andrew, isn't just firing missiles. They've raised the possibility of closing the Strait of Hormuz. That's that really narrow shipping lane that 20% of the world's oil and gas goes through. And that, of course, would raise global prices for oil. Iran's foreign minister said that was among the measures they're considering taking.
LIMBONG: What about ordinary Iranians? What measures are they taking to protect themselves?
ARRAF: We spoke to a woman in her 20s named Roxanna in Tehran. She's a shop manager. We're not using her full name because she could face security problems for talking to foreign media. As you might imagine, Iranians are not getting a lot of information, and they're scared and confused.
ROXANNA: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: Here, she says, "we can't know what's happening, and this uncertainty causes a lot of anxiety." She says she's resorted to asking internet AI, artificial intelligence, what's happening. She says, everything is really scary for everyone.
LIMBONG: Yeah, I can imagine. That's NPR's Jane Arraf who's joining us from Amman, Jordan. Jane, thank you so much.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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