Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian criticized Israel for trying to pull his country into a regional war, amid ongoing tensions.
“Israel is trying to entangle us in a regional war by the assassination of Haniyeh. We reserve the right to defend ourselves,” the new Iranian president said on Monday during his first news conference following his inauguration.
Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, officially the chairman of Hamas’ Political Bureau, in Tehran on July 31.
Pezeshkian also reiterated that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons while also defending his country’s missile program. “If we don’t have missiles, they [Israel] will bomb us at any time, just like in Gaza,” he said. “We will not give up our defensive capability.”
One of his government’s foreign policy goals is a rapprochement with the West, he said.
When asked by a journalist whether he would meet the new U.S. president after the elections in November, Pezeshkian said, “a direct meeting requires that promises are kept.”
“They should not impose sanctions and threaten us, then we will also be fraternal with them,” he added.
The U.S. and Israel have been considered arch-enemies of Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Fears have been soaring that a wider war will break out in the Middle East since October last year, and the subsequent war in Gaza.
