According to a report by Al Jazeera, Masoud Pezeshkian, President of Iran, said in a post on X that Tehran had made sincere efforts to avoid conflict, but that a recent U.S.–Israeli military offensive forced Iran to defend itself.
Pezeshkian’s message was directed to Iran’s Arab neighbors and the wider international community as hostilities between Iran, the United States, and Israel escalated into open conflict. He stressed that Iran’s government and diplomats had pursued diplomacy and dialogue—with the support of regional partners—to avert war, but that those efforts were overtaken by what Iran describes as aggressive military action by the U.S. and Israel.
In his X post, the Iranian president wrote, “We tried—with your help and through diplomacy—to avoid war. But the U.S.–Zionist military attack left us with no choice but to defend ourselves.”
He also reaffirmed Iran’s official position that it respects the sovereignty of neighboring nations and believes that long-term stability should be ensured by countries within the region rather than external powers. Pezeshkian’s appeal sought to frame Iran’s response not as unilateral aggression but as a forced self-defense measure after diplomatic avenues collapsed under the pressure of military escalation. See_More…