Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that Tehran still wanted a negotiated end to its war with the United States, despite a sharp escalation in hostilities over the past 24 hours.
Pezeshkian made the remarks during talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, where the Iranian leader is meeting world leaders and senior officials.
According to Iran’s Tasnim news agency, Pezeshkian told Modi that continued fighting was in nobody’s interest and that dialogue and cooperation offered the best way to resolve existing disputes.
But the president also accused Washington of failing to honour its commitments, according to the Fars news agency.
He cited what he described as a continuing US blockade of Iranian ports and the retention of frozen Iranian assets, and said “there are currents within America that see their interests in the continuation of war”, without elaborating.
Pezeshkian, viewed as a relative moderate within Iran’s political system, faces internal divisions over how to handle the conflict.
Iran’s new hardline leadership is reportedly pushing for confrontation with Washington, seeking reparations and the right to impose tolls on vessels passing through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.
