Iran’s new president calls Israel warmonger as he seeks talks with West

Iran’s new president on Monday accused Israel of seeking regional war, as he attempted to cast Tehran as restrained and appealed to the West for talks on flashpoint issues.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, inaugurated in late July as a reformist within the cleric-run state, was visiting the United Nations as Israel steps up strikes in Lebanon on the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah, following a wave of explosions on handheld communication devices.
“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 told a roundtable with journalists in New York.
Pezeshkian — whose hardline predecessor died in a helicopter crash — took office with calls for a better relationship with the West.
But tensions immediately soared as the visiting political chief of Hamas, the Palestinian militants who attacked Israel on October 7 last year, was assassinated in an operation in Tehran widely attributed to Israel.
Pezeshkian alluded to appeals from the West for Iran not to retaliate so as not to jeopardize US efforts for a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“We tried to not respond. They kept telling us we are within reach of peace, perhaps in a week or so,” he said.
“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 said.
He did not reply directly when asked if Iran would now respond more directly to Israel.
“We always keep hearing, well, Hezbollah fired a rocket. If Hezbollah didn’t even do that minimum, who would defend them?” he said.
“Curiously enough, we keep being labeled as the perpetrator of insecurity. But look at the situation for where it is.”
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Iran openly backs Hamas, whose October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,455 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN has described the figures as reliable.
Pezeshkian accused Western powers of double standards by saying that violence “by one side is legitimate self-defense but it’s terrorism and murder by the other.”
Israel has scoffed at talk of reformists within the Iranian system and US officials, while willing to speak with Tehran indirectly, have played down Pezeshkian’s influence, saying that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ultimately makes key decisions.
Pezeshkian called for talks with the West on Russia after US intelligence said that Iran was supplying ballistic missiles to Moscow for its war in Ukraine.
“We are willing to sit down with the Europeans and the Americans to have a dialogue and negotiations. We have never approved of Russian aggression against Ukrainian territory,” Pezeshkian said, again denying the missile shipments.
Ukraine, which enjoys sympathy from much of the Iranian public, has threatened to sever relations with Tehran over the missiles issue.
Western powers have hit Iran with a new round of sanctions, including targeting air agreements, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying the missiles contradict Pezeshkian’s calls for better relations.
Pezeshkian also made a new appeal Monday for the restoration of a 2015 nuclear deal which was scrapped by former US president Donald Trump.
President Joe Biden took office saying he would restore the agreement but talks failed, due in  part to disagreement over the extent on sanctions relief.
Any high-level US diplomacy with Pezeshkian is highly unlikely ahead of the US presidential election in November, with Iran toxic in US politics and Tehran unwilling to make concessions before knowing the next administration’s policies.
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By Shaun Tandon