Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a meeting with the cabinet in Tehran, Iran, Oct. 2, 2024. (Photo: Iran’s Presidency/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)
In a press conference in Qatar on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian indicated that the regime does not want its conflict with Israel to escalate into full-scale war.
“Iran aspires to peace and stability in the Middle East because no country can progress when there is war,” Pezeshkian said.
He made the comments in Qatar’s capital, Doha, during a press conference with Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, the Emir of Qatar.
Pezeshkian has made similar claims in recent weeks.
Last month, he said that Iran is “not looking for nuclear weapons.”
During his recent trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Pezeshkian reportedly said that Iranians “don’t want to fight,” and that “it’s Israel that wants to drag everyone into war and destabilize the region. They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go.”
He was further reported as saying: “We are willing to put all our weapons aside so long as Israel is willing to do the same.”
Iran’s foreign minister pushed back on those media reports at the time, saying that Pezeshkian had promised that “the crimes of the Zionist regime in Gaza,” “the invasion of Lebanon,” and “the assassination of Martyr Haniyeh…will not go unanswered.”
While Pezeshkian presents himself as a moderate, ALL ISRAEL NEWS writer Hanan Lichinsky argues that the recently elected Iranian president “has always remained firmly within the boundaries set by the Supreme Leader,” despite apparent “tactical disagreements with the more hardline factions of the regime.”
Tuesday’s attack – which saw 181 ballistic missiles fired at targets in Israel by Iran – was justified by the regime as a retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July in Tehran, as well as the assassinations of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah last month and IRGC Brig.-Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut last Friday.
