Iranian President Pezeshkian: We Don't Want War, Israel Trying to Create Conflict

JAKARTA - Israel wants to drag the Middle East into a full-blown war by provoking Iran to join the nearly year-long conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday, warning of "irreversible" consequences.

Speaking to a group of reporters after arriving in New York, United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting, President Pezeshkian said: "We do not want to be the cause of instability in the Middle East because the consequences will be irreversible," as quoted by Reuters on September 24.

"We want to live in peace, we do not want war," he continued.

"It is Israel that is trying to create this all-out conflict," President Pezeshkian said.

President Pezeshkian, a relatively moderate politician who was elected in July on promises of a pragmatic foreign policy, accused the international community of silence in the face of what he called "Israeli genocide" in Gaza.

President Pezeshkian’s call for resolving the Middle East conflict through dialogue came after Israel launched a wave of intense airstrikes against Hezbollah on Monday, making it the deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly a year of conflict between Israel and the militant group.

“We will defend any group that defends its rights and itself,” President Pezeshkian said, when asked if Iran would enter into a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, without elaborating.

Iran’s regional policies are determined by the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

President Pezeshkian has repeatedly reiterated Iran’s anti-Israel stance and support for resistance movements across the region since taking office last month.

When asked if Iran would retaliate for the killing of the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on its territory in late July, President Pezeshkian said, "We will respond at the right time and place, in the right way".

Previously, three senior Iranian officials told Reuters in August that Tehran had been engaged in intense dialogue with Western countries and the United States to calibrate retaliation against Israel for Haniyeh's killing.

President Pezeshkian said, "we were told in a week there would be a ceasefire agreement" between Israel and Hamas, "but that week never came and instead Israel continued to expand its attacks."