Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has urged Muslim countries to work together to press Israel to end its crimes and genocide in Gaza.
He made the appeal during talks in Tehran with Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to a statement from his office.
“Muslim governments and all other countries dedicated to international law and frameworks should band together. “And by working together, successfully compel Israel’s backers to restrain the state and put an end to its crimes and genocide in Gaza,” Pezeshkian stated.
He praised Qatar’s initiatives to bring about a Gaza peace. He further said that Gaza consistently broke all international laws and norms.
“The nations purporting to be promoting human rights” choose to keep quiet about those “crimes” and even aided those committing the atrocities.
The recent promise by Iran and its allies to exact retribution for the July assassinations of Hezbollah’s military commander Fouad Shokor and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has raised tensions in the area.
One day after Shokor was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Haniyeh and his bodyguard were assassinated on July 31 when their Tehran apartment was bombed. Haniyeh was in Iran for the swearing-in ceremony of Pezeshkian.
In response to Israel’s alleged preemptive airstrikes against Hezbollah’s rocket sites in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah launched hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel early on Sunday morning.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi stated on X on Sunday night that his country will respond to Haniyeh’s murder with “definitive, measured, and well calculated” measures. Iran has not yet taken any reprisals.
“We do not fear escalation, yet do not seek it,” the minister stated. Mohammad Baqeri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, similarly promised on Monday that retaliation is definite, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Baqeri stated that Iran would decide on its retaliation for Haniyeh’s assassination, and the resistance axis, as shown on Sunday, would respond separately and independently.
He condemned the cowardly death of the Hamas head in Tehran as an unforgettable episode, vowing that Iran would not succumb to the adversaries’ media provocations.
During conversations with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant stated, “Iran’s aggression has reached an all-time high.
“To counter this, Israel and the United States must work together to achieve and project groundbreaking capabilities in all arenas,” Gallant said, according to a readout from his office.
In Essence
Iran often positions itself as a defender of Palestinian rights and uses rhetoric about “crimes and genocide” to galvanize support across the Muslim world.
This appeal for unity is likely aimed at both regional solidarity and mobilizing international pressure against Israel, particularly through diplomatic and potentially military means.
The assassination of figures like Hezbollah’s Fouad Shokor and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh further escalates tensions, as these incidents are seen by Iran and its allies as direct provocations.
The promise of retaliation from Iran indicates that the situation could escalate further, particularly if Iran or its proxies choose to respond militarily.
