President Pezehskian claims Iran embraces peace and regional stability, despite funding proxy groups that repeatedly attacked Israel.
By World Israel News Staff
Iran’s president claimed that Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah is forcing Tehran into the conflict, failing to acknowledge how the regime’s proxies in the region have systematically attacked Israel for months.
Speaking on Monday to reporters ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Mahmoud Pezeshkian claimed that Iran is a peace-loving nation that seeks to stabilize the Middle East – despite the fact that Tehran has repeatedly threatened to destroy Israel.
Blaming Israel for the ongoing fighting, Pezeshkian charged that Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah were a “trap” designed to draw Iran into the war.
“We don’t want to fight,” Pezeshkian said. “It’s Israel that wants to drag everyone into war and destabilize the region. … They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go.”
Pezeshkian’s comments are directly contradicted by many public statements by other high-level Iranian officials in recent months, who have threatened on numerous occasions to annihilate Israel.
Since October 7th, many of Iran’s regional proxies have launched unprovoked attacks on Israel.
Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and based in Lebanon, has been firing near-daily missile, rocket, and explosive drone salvos at Israel for more than 11 months.
The Yemen-based Houthis, also an Iranian proxy group, fired several explosive drones and ballistic missiles at Israel.
Various Shia militia groups controlled by Iran, based in Syria and Iraq, have also launched drones towards Israel.
Israel’s intensification of its military campaign against the Hezbollah terror group, in which Iran has invested untold funds, training, and arms, appears to sparked panic among Iran’s leadership.
“Israel’s crimes, enabled by the U.S., are crystal clear for the world to witness. Do not look away,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on social media platform X on Monday.
“This brutal and criminal disregard for human life cannot be permitted to continue. Iran will NOT remain indifferent. We stand with the people of Lebanon and Palestine,” he added.