NEW YORK: Israel wants to drag the Middle East into a full-blown war by provoking Iran to join the nearly year-old conflict between Israel and Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, Iran’s president said on Monday (Sep 23), warning of its “irreversible” consequences.
Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking to a group of journalists after his arrival in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, said: “We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East as its consequences would be irreversible.”
“We want to live in peace, we don’t want war,” he added. “It is Israel that seeks to create this all-out conflict.”
Pezeshkian, a relatively moderate politician who was elected in July promising a pragmatic foreign policy, accused the international community of silence in the face of what he called “Israel’s genocide” in Gaza.
Pezeshkian’s call to resolve the Middle East conflict through dialogue came after Israel unleashed an intense wave of air strikes against Hezbollah on Monday, making it the deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly a year of conflict between Israel and Tehran-backed group.
“We will defend any group that is defending its rights and itself,” Pezeshkian said, when asked whether Iran will enter the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. He did not elaborate.
Tens of thousands of people have been displaced from towns and villages on both sides of the border by near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah. Israel has said it prefers a diplomatic solution that would have Hezbollah moved farther back from the border.
However, Hezbollah, which also says it wants to avoid all-out conflict, says that only an end to the war in Gaza will stop the fighting. Gaza ceasefire efforts are deadlocked after months of faltering talks mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Iran’s regional policy is set by the elite Revolutionary Guards, who answer only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s top authority.
Pezeshkian has repeatedly affirmed Iran’s anti-Israel stance and its support for resistance movements across the region since taking office last month.
Asked if Iran would retaliate for the assassination of Palestinian militant group Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniyeh on its soil in late July, Pezeshkian said: “We will respond at the appropriate time and place, in an appropriate manner.”
Haniyeh’s killing, which both Tehran and Hamas have blamed on Israel, has aroused fears of direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-foe Israel in a region shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.
Iran’s powerful Guards and Khamenei have vowed “severe” revenge for Haniyeh’s killing, which happened while he visited Tehran. So far, Tehran has held back from direct retaliation against Israel, which has neither confirmed or denied its involvement.
Three senior Iranian officials told Reuters in August that Tehran has been involved in intense dialogue with Western countries and the United States to calibrate retaliation against Israel for Haniyeh’s assassination.
Pezeshkian said they “were told that within a week there will be a ceasefire agreement” between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas, “but that week has never come and instead Israel has kept expanding its attacks”.
“ALMOST IN A FULL-FLEDGED WAR”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, also in New York, described the escalation between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah as nearly a full-fledged war.
“This situation is extremely dangerous and worrying. I can say that we are almost in a full-fledged war,” Josep Borrell told reporters.
“If this is not a war situation, I don’t know what you would call it,” he said, citing the increasing number of civilian casualties and the intensity of military strikes.
Borrell said efforts to reduce tensions were ongoing, but Europe’s worst fears about a spillover were becoming a reality.
He said civilians were paying a high price and all diplomatic efforts were needed to prevent a full-blown war.
“Here in New York is the moment to do that. Everybody has to put all their capacity to stop this path to war,” he said.