Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of trying to drag his country into a regional war, citing the killing of a leading member of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran more than six weeks ago.
“Israel is trying to entangle us in a regional war through the assassination of Haniyeh. We reserve the right to defend ourselves,” the new Iranian president said Monday during his first press conference after his inauguration.
Haniyeh, official chairman of Hamas’ political bureau, was assassinated in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in Haniyeh’s death.
Pezeshkian also reiterated that Iran does not seek nuclear weapons, while also defending his country’s missile program. “If we don’t have missiles, [Israel] will bomb us at any time, just like in Gaza,” he said. “We will not give up our defense capacity.”
One of his government’s foreign policy goals is rapprochement with the West, he said.
When asked by a reporter whether he would meet the new US president after the November elections, Pezeshkian said: “A direct meeting requires fulfilling promises.”
“They should not impose sanctions on us or threaten us, then we will also deal with them in a brotherly manner,” he added.
Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the US and Israel have been considered arch-enemies of Tehran.
Fears of a wider war breaking out in the Middle East have grown since Hamas attacks on Israel last October and the subsequent war in Gaza. Tehran supports groups hostile to Israel, including Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
