If Israel “wants to respond, we will have a stronger response”, highlighted the head of state, in a joint press conference with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha. Iran “does not seek war, it is Israel that pressures us to react,” Pezeshkian added.
The Iranian leader reacted a day after an Iranian attack on Israel using around 200 missiles, 90% of which, according to Tehran, reached their target. A large number were intercepted by the anti-missile system, according to the Israeli Army, which clarified today that missiles fell on the country’s air bases without causing damage.
This direct Iranian attack on Israel, the second since April, set off sirens across the country, injuring two people in Israel and killing a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, according to emergency services and a Palestinian official. “The malicious objective of the Zionist regime is to sow insecurity and spread the crisis in the region,” the Iranian president further accused.
“What we ask the United States and European countries is to tell the entity they have established in the region [Israel] to stop the bloodshed,” he added. With its attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israel is pushing the region “to the brink of the abyss”, warned the Emir of Qatar.
The sheikh also criticized Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, assuring that Doha will continue its mediation efforts to negotiate a ceasefire agreement in the war triggered almost a year ago by an attack by the Palestinian Hamas movement on Israeli soil.
*Com Lusa