Iran says Israeli barbarism in Lebanon won’t repair its myth of invincibility

The president made the remarks in New York on Tuesday, addressing the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

He was referring to the regime’s failure in the face of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas in the Palestinian territory and the escalation of the regime’s attacks against Lebanon since the onset of the war.

Pezeshkian said, “The insane Israeli barbarism in Lebanon should be stopped before setting the region and the world on fire.”

“Naturally, the blind and terrorist crimes of the past days and the extensive aggression against Lebanon that shed the blood of thousands of innocent people will not remain unanswered,” he added.

“Those governments that stand in the way of cessation of this terrible catastrophe and still call themselves defenders of the human rights, have to bear the consequences [of these atrocities],” the president noted.

Pezeshkian, meanwhile, pointed to the regime’s killing of more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly woman and children, during the course of the Gaza war that began on October 7.

“The people of the world have witnessed the nature of the Israeli regime throughout the past year. They have seen how the regime’s rulers perpetrate crimes,” he said.

The regime, though, refers to its “genocide, war crime, and state terrorism as ‘legitimate defense’ and identifies hospitals, kindergartens, and schools as ‘legitimate military targets,’” the president noted.

He also denounced branding of those who have been protesting the Israeli war across the world as “ant-Semites,” pledging that the Islamic Republic stands by the international protesters.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Pezeshkian addressed the issue of the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, lambasting the Israeli regime and its supporters for trying to identify the Palestinians, “who have risen up [to claim the right] after seven decades of occupation and humiliation, as ‘terrorists.’”

“The only means of ending the 70-year nightmare of insecurity in the West Asia and the world lies in restoration of the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination,” he noted.

Pezeshkian said Iran pursued peace for the entirety of the international community, asserting, “We want peace for all and are not after engaging in war and fighting with anyone.”

“Take a look at the contemporary history of the region. Iran has never acted as an initiator of any war,” the president said, adding that the country had, in all cases, “just heroically defended itself in the face of others’ aggression and caused the aggressors to regret [their transgressions].”

“We have learned through experience that we can only rely on the people and our indigenous capabilities. The Islamic Republic is intent on providing and guaranteeing its own security, not on causing insecurity for others,” Pezeshkian remarked.

He noted that the country had not only neither occupied any foreign territory nor coveted the interests of other countries, but also had repeatedly forwarded various proposals to its neighbors and international organizations for establishment of sustainable peace and stability in the region.

“We have spoken about the necessity of regional unity and formation of a strong region,” the president stated.

“Our region suffers from war, sectarian tensions, terrorism, extremism, drug smuggling, shortage of water resources, refugee crises, environmental destruction, and foreign interference,” Pezeshkian said, adding, “We can address these common challenges towards ensuring a better future for the next generations.”

Citing an instance of the Islamic Republic’s advocacy for peace, he mentioned the country’s favoring realization of sustainable peace and security for both Ukraine and Russia, which have been engaged in a conflict since 2022.

The Islamic Republic, he said, lays emphasis on the need for expedient cessation of military conflict in Ukraine, supports whatever peaceful resolution, and believes that the crisis can only be resolved through negotiation.

Pezeshkian, meanwhile, contrasted the Islamic Republic’s peaceable attitude with the Israeli regime’s aggressive behavior towards either the Iranian nation or other regional peoples.

He cited the cases of the regime’s assassination of at least seven Iranian nuclear scientists in the past, its deadly attack against the Islamic Republic’s Consulate in the Syrian capital Damascus in April, and its assassination of Hamas’ former Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital Tehran in July.

He also mentioned the regime’s provision of “open and clandestine support for [the Takfiri terrorist group of] Daesh and [other] terror outfits.”

“On the contrary, Iran has supported liberating and popular movements that have been the victim of the Israeli regime’s crimes and colonialism for four generations.”