Iran’s president had said on Monday that Israel’s intention was to drag the Middle East into a full-blown war by inciting Iran to join the nearly year-old conflict between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. The president had warned of its “irreversible” consequences.
Masoud Pezeshkian, had while speaking to a group of journalists after his arrival in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, said: “We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East as its consequences would be irreversible”
“We want to live in peace, we don’t want war,” he added. “It is Israel that seeks to create this all-out conflict.”
Pezeshkian, who was elected in July is regarded as a relatively moderate politician who promised a pragmatic foreign policy and is notable for accusing the international community of silence in the face of what he called “Israel’s genocide” in Gaza.
Pezeshkian’s call for a resolve in the Middle East conflict through dialogue had come after Israel unleashed an intense wave of air strikes against Hezbollah on Monday, making it the deadliest wreckage in Lebanon in almost a year of conflict between Israel and the Tehran-backed group.
Iran’s regional policy is instituted by the elite Revolutionary Guards, who answer only to the country’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Pezeshkian has repeatedly affirmed Iran’s anti-Israel stance and its support for resistance movements across the region since coming into office last month.
When asked if Iran would retaliate for the assassination of Palestinian militant group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil in July, Pezeshkian replied, “We will respond at the appropriate time and place, in an appropriate manner”.
