Iranian president accuses Israel of seeking broader war in Middle East and laying ‘traps’ to lure Iran into it
Pezeshkian also accused Israel of genocide in Gaza through attacks on schools, hospitals and homes | (Photo: PTI)
Iran’s new president accused Israel on Monday of trying to start a broader war in the Middle East and of setting traps to lure his country into a larger conflict.
Masoud Pezeshkian told about two dozen media representatives that Iran does not want an expansion of the current war in Gaza and airstrikes on the Israel-Lebanon border.
We don’t want to fight, he said. It’s Israel that wants to drag everyone into war and destabilize the region. They’re dragging us to a point where we don’t want to go.
Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and reformer, defeated a hardliner in Iran’s presidential election in July, after the former president was killed in a helicopter crash. He is making his debut on the international stage at the annual gathering of world leaders this week at the UN General Assembly, just as Israel is stepping up attacks on Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The Iranian leader, who turns 70 on Sunday, said that while Israel insists it does not want a broader war, its actions prove otherwise. Pezeshkian pointed to deadly explosions of pagers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices in Lebanon last week, which he blamed on Israel, and the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, hours after Pezeshkian was inaugurated.
According to Pezeshkian, Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel in April, in response to an attack on an Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital that Tehran blamed on Israel, demonstrate the country’s defensive capabilities.
He said Iran has no intention of destabilizing the Middle East. We are prepared to lay down all our weapons as long as Israel is prepared to do the same, he said.
Two weeks ago, the United States and Britain formally accused Iran of supplying Russia with short-range missiles for use against Ukraine, and announced new sanctions against Moscow and Tehran ahead of a joint visit by their top diplomats to Kiev.
Pezeshkian insisted that Iran has not and will not supply Russia with ballistic missiles to attack Ukraine. We have never agreed to Russian aggression against Ukrainian territory, he said, adding that the two countries should engage in dialogue.
The president was asked about Iran’s nuclear program after the Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Tehran has expanded its uranium enrichment from 3.67 percent purity under the deal to 60 percent purity, making many in the West nervous that it is trying to build a nuclear weapon.
Would Iran return to low-enriched uranium and give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium if the nuclear deal is restored?
Pezeshkian said that weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran and its military structures.
We are still ready to comply with the framework agreed in 2015, he said, but the Europeans were trying to push Iran to sign a different deal.
He said Iran is ready to sit down with Europeans and Americans to negotiate.
Pezeshkian was asked whether Iran had advance knowledge of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
The Americans know, and Israel knows very well that Iran did not know, he replied.
Israel says it only attacks militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas.
Pezeshkian also accused Israel of genocide in Gaza by attacking schools, hospitals and homes. He defended Iran’s support for Palestinians and Lebanese Hezbollah militants, saying his country will not stand by and watch oppression and injustice.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s nearly year-long retaliation campaign. The ministry makes no distinction between civilians and combatants.
Pezeshkian was responding to Avril Haines, the top US intelligence official, who said in July that the Iranian government was secretly encouraging US protests over the war in Gaza in an effort to stoke outrage ahead of the November presidential election.
Please don’t believe this, it’s childish, he said.
When a reporter asked whether Iran would release Narges Mohammadi, who won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her activism, including for women’s rights, Pezeshkian said there are four female ministers in his government.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Sep 24, 2024 | 07:04 AM IST