Published September 23,2024
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday accused Israel of looking for a wider battle, insisting that Tehran has been intentionally holding again within the hope of securing 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 advised a roundtable with journalists as he attended the UN General Assembly in New York.
Pezeshkian, inaugurated in July as a reformist inside the cleric-run state, was making his UN debut as Israel strikes Lebanon following a wave of assaults on handheld communications units concentrating on Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
Tensions soared instantly after his inauguration because the visiting political chief of Hamas, the Palestinian fighters who attacked Israel on October 7 final 12 months, was assassinated in an operation in Tehran extensively attributed to Israel.
Pezeshkian alluded to appeals from the West for Iran to not retaliate in order to not jeopardize U.S. efforts for a ceasefire within the Gaza struggle.
“We tried to not respond. They kept telling us we are within reach of peace, perhaps in a week or so,” he stated.
“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,” he stated.
He didn’t reply immediately when requested if Iran would now reply extra on to Israel.
“We always keep hearing, well, Hezbollah fired a rocket. If Hezbollah didn’t even do that minimum, who would defend them?” he stated.
“Curiously enough, we keep being labeled as the perpetrator of insecurity. But look at the situation for where it is.”
Iran overtly backs Hamas, whose October 7 assault resulted within the deaths of 1,205 folks, largely civilians, in line with an AFP tally primarily based on Israeli official figures that embrace hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory navy offensive has killed a minimum of 41,455 folks in Gaza, most of them civilians, in line with figures offered by the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry. The UN has described the figures as dependable.
Source: www.anews.com.tr