Pezeshkian: Iran will respond stronger if Israel makes ‘slightest’ mistake
TEHRAN - President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned Iran will surely give a “stronger and more crushing” response to Israel if it commits the “slightest” mistake.
Pezeshkian made the statement in a meeting Wednesday with a high-ranking Hamas team in Doha, Qatar. Pezeshkian had made a two-day trip to Doha to attend the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD).
The meeting with the Hamas team took place a day after Iran carried out a retaliatory operation against Israel in retaliation to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31 and the killing of Iranian military advisor in Lebanon Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan and Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a massive airstrike on Beirut on September 27.
The president went on to say that Western countries requested Iran to exercise self-restraint and refrain from responding to the Haniyeh assassination in exchange for establishment of ceasefire in Gaza, however, their promises proved empty, and Israel proceeded ahead with its killing machine.
"The continuation of the Zionist regime’s crimes made the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran to give a decisive response,” Pezeshkian said, Press TV reported.
The president lashed out at the United States and other Western countries for pursuing hypocritical approaches, saying they back Israel while claiming to advocate democracy and human rights.
These countries are constantly talking about human rights and human dignity, while they have proven that they are completely alien to these concepts as they are supporting the criminal Israeli regime, he remarked.
“People's lives, especially those of women and children, are of no value to them, and all their claims are lies,” Pezeshkian lamented.