DOHA: President Masoud Pezeshkian insisted on Wednesday that Iran was “not looking for war” but pledged a stronger response if Israel retaliates for its missile attack.
“If it (Israel) wants to react, we will have a stronger response, this is what the Islamic Republic is committed to,” Pezeshkian said in a joint press conference with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha.
“We are not looking for war, it is Israel that forces us to react,” he said.
Pezeshkian spoke a day after Iran fired about 200 missiles including hypersonic weapons towards Israel, sending frightened civilians into shelters.
Israel intercepted most of them, while medics reported two people lightly wounded by shrapnel. One of the missiles damaged a school building.
On Wednesday the Israeli military said several Iranian missiles fell inside air force bases without causing any damage.
“The dirty goal of the Zionist regime is to cause insecurity and spread crisis in the region,” Pezeshkian said.
“What we want from US and European countries is to tell the entity they have planted in the region (Israel) to stop the bloodshed.”
Sheikh Tamim warned that Israel was drawing the region to the “brink of the abyss” with its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“It has become crystal clear that what is happening is genocide, in addition to turning the Gaza Strip into an area unfit for human habitation, in preparation for displacement,” he said during the Asia Cooperation Dialogue summit in Doha.
The Qatari Emir also condemned Israeli air strikes and military operations “against the brotherly Lebanese Republic.”
The emir also condemned ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying Doha would press on with efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose October 7 attacks triggered the war.
