Pezeshkian: Israel will not forsake occupation unless ‘world puts it in its place’
Iran ready for nuclear talks with US ‘under int’l law’
President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Israeli regime will not give up its vision of ‘Greater Israel’ “unless the world puts it in its place.”
In an interview with Chinese CCTV broadcast on Sunday, Pezeshkian said the map designed by the regime’s authorities to establish a “Greater Israel” will include many regional countries, adding that the regime will not give up its plan “unless the world puts it in its place.”
Back in August, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed he feels he is on a “historic and spiritual mission,” and that he is “very” attached to the vision of the “Promised Land and Greater Israel.”
The “Greater Israel” concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis is understood to refer to an expansionist vision that lays claim to the occupied West Bank, Gaza, parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.
Netanyahu’s comments drew condemnations from many regional countries.
"It is unacceptable that a small or great country allows itself to invade another country while the world remains indifferent,” the Iranian president said.
“The regime does not have the right to invade other countries,” Pezeshkian added. “Israel today easily carries out invasions in Syria, kills people in Gaza and now is seeking to expel its residents from their land. If the world accepts its measures, the regime will never abandon its policies in the region.”
Negotiations with US
In response to a question about the resumption of negotiations with the United States over Iran’s nuclear program, Pezeshkian said that the Islamic Republic is ready for dialogue within the framework of international laws.
However, a regime that always claims is being threatened by others, influences the negotiations. Iran and the US began talks in April to resolve a decades-old dispute over nuclear program and held five rounds of talks mediated by Oman. But two days before the sixth round of negotiations scheduled for June 15, Israel launched an unprovoked aggression against Iran, which derailed the talks.
The US later joined the onslaught on June 22 and targeted Iran’s three nuclear facilities in violation of the United Nations Charter and the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The US had been pressuring Iran to accept zero uranium enrichment. But Iran has repeatedly said that it will not abandon enrichment in its facilities but is ready to decrease the level of enrichment at the 3.75% purity, which has been allowed in the 2015 nuclear agreement from which the US unilaterally withdrew and left the future of the nuclear deal in limbo.
Pezeshkian also pointed to Iran’s lack of trust in the US, saying, “Today, the reason why the Leader (of the Islamic Revolution) and the people of Iran are not optimistic about the United States is precisely because of these repeated breaches of agreements. The United States has repeatedly and unilaterally withdrawn from agreements that it itself had signed.”