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A feature of the biggest election year in history, where more countries took to the polls than at any other time in history, was the return of the moderate reformers to power in Iran. President Masoud Pezeshkian was elected with a mandate to improve Iran’s relations with the West and secure sanctions relief in whatever reasonably possible way.
But the timing couldn’t be worse for the 70-year-old cardiologist and representative from Tabriz. A victory in the November elections for Donald Trump could spell disaster for Pezeshkian’s hopes for sanctions relief, as the sanctions themselves were applied at Trump’s command. Additionally, the conflict that was once limited to Gaza is now imminently threatening to consume Lebanon as well, where Iran’s militia allies Hezbollah have been persecuted with extreme bombing and terrorism by Israel.
There is overwhelming political support in Iran for countering Israel in whatever way possible, and an invasion of Lebanon has been stated as something like a watershed moment for Iranian foreign policy.
“In that situation,” said Kamal Kharrazi, foreign affairs adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “we would have no choice but to support Hezbollah by all means”.
Even “all means” might not mean all that much; it might simply signify all means available—according to the regime’s long-running foreign policy stance of not doing anything that would convince the Americans to destroy them like Hussein’s Iraq.
If an attack on their famous Lebanese proxy does merit something beyond the known playbook, Pezeshkian’s continued overtures of seeking dialogue with the West may be permanently silenced. However even the Ayatollah himself gave a green light of sorts for Pezeshkian to begin dialogue, saying in August, “there is no harm” in interacting with “the enemy” in certain situations.
Three weeks following Khamenei’s statement, Pezeshkian used the most conciliatory tone yet when asked about whether or not he intended, and if in fact it were at all possible, to revive the JCPOA nuclear deal negotiated between presidents Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani in 2015.
“We are not hostile towards the US. They should end their hostility towards us by showing their goodwill in practice,” Pezeshkian said at a press conference in Tehran. “We are brothers with the Americans as well,” he added.
No partner for peace
To use the common refrain from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ilk, Iran has no partner for peace. Trump, who is now routinely claiming that agents of Iran are trying to assassinate him, is hawkish only when compared to the emerging Biden-Harris apparatus, which now actively criticizes Trump for not going to war in Iran in 2018.
Washington DC claims to be firmly against escalation of the current onslaught in Gaza into Lebanon, where Israel has already killed over 500 people and wounded over 4,000 in the last two weeks, yet just today announced that another $8 billion worth of critical munitions were being transferred to Israel.
The region is set for massive bloodshed, and the Biden administration such as it remains has already said that no dialogue will be had with Iran until after the November election.
In light of the lack of immediate engagement and Tel Aviv’s continued military escalation, Pezeshkian has changed his tune. On September 23rd, Pezeshkian said that Israel was setting “traps” to drag Iran into war.
“We don’t want to fight,” he said at a press conference in New York while he was there for the meeting of the UN General Assembly. “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”.
The Iranian leader said that Iran waited to respond to the Israeli assassination of the visiting chairman of the Hamas politburo Ismail Haniyeh at Washington’s request.
“They told us earlier to prevent a larger war to wait another week or so for peace to be obtained,” Pezeshkian said. “Clearly the politicians that lie to us these days… lie to you as well”.
In another press conference 3 days later, Pezeshkian appealed with mainstream news outlets to understand Iran’s position in defending victims of Zionist aggression.
“Hezbollah, or any other group that wishes to defend her rights, we defend them. We defend righteousness. If we defend the Palestinians, we’re defending the rights of those who cannot defend themselves,” Pezeshkian said, according to Max Blumenthal at The Grayzone. “We do believe that if a larger war were to erupt in the region, it will not benefit any country”.
Adding to his comments earlier about Haniyeh, Pezeshkian said again that the US lied to him.
“They [US] told us that, within a week, we’re going to reach some sort of an agreement with Israel,” he recalled. “But, unfortunately, that week never came, and Israel keeps expanding its illegal activities and killings”.
Blumenthal and colleague Anya Parampil wrote that Pezeshkian finished his time by saying he hopes that the forces at work in the region “do not drag us to a point where we are forced to display a behavior or reaction that is not worthy of us”. WaL
PICTURED ABOVE: President Masoud Pezeshkian celebrates his victory with his supporters. PC: Masoud Shahrestani, Tasnim News Agency.
