Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of seeking a wider conflict in the Middle East, emphasizing Tehran’s restraint in pursuit of regional peace.
“We know more than anyone else that if a larger war were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the world. It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict,” Pezeshkian stated during a roundtable with journalists at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Pezeshkian, a reformist inaugurated in July, made his UN debut amid heightened tensions following Israel’s strikes on Lebanon. Recent attacks on Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah and the assassination of Hamas’s political chief in Tehran, attributed to Israel, have escalated tensions.
The West has urged Iran to refrain from retaliation, citing ongoing US efforts for a Gaza ceasefire.
Pezeshkian noted, “We tried to not respond. They kept telling us we are within reach of peace, perhaps in a week or so… But we never reached that elusive peace. Every day Israel is committing more atrocities and killing more and more people – old, young, men, women, children, hospitals, other facilities.”
When asked about potential retaliation, Pezeshkian replied, “We always keep hearing, well, Hezbollah fired a rocket. If Hezbollah didn’t even do that minimum, who would defend them?… Curiously enough, we keep being labeled as the perpetrator of insecurity. But look at the situation for where it is.”
Iran openly supports Hamas, whose October 7 attack resulted in 1,205 deaths, mostly civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 41,455 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has deemed these figures reliable.