Iranian president pledges to continue supporting Hezbollah as threat of wider Middle East war looms

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed Monday to keep backing Hezbollah in Lebanon even as Israel ramps up its attacks on the terror group.

Speaking to reporters in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Pezeshkian said Tehran would support Hezbollah “or any group that wants to defend its rights.”

Pezeshkian, 69, also claimed that Iran was “willing to put all of our weapons aside, so long as Israel is willing to do the same.”

“But we cannot have outside actors come in, arm one side to the teeth and prevent the other side from having the means to defend themselves,” he added in a reference to American military support for the Jewish state.

Israel has targeted Hezbollah’s key operatives in a series of attacks beginning Sept. 17, when pagers distributed by the terror group began exploding across Beirut, with walkie-talkies suffering the same fate the following day.

Since then, Israel has conducted airstrikes on top Hezbollah leaders and logistical areas, culminating Monday when 300 targets across Lebanon were hit in a large-scale barrage.

The escalation comes after nearly a year of daily Hezbollah attacks on northern Israel, beginning one day after Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack that killed an estimated 1,200 people.

Since Oct. 8, Hezbollah has launched more than 8,000 rockets, missiles and explosive drones, forcing more than 60,000 Israeli residents to abandon their homes, IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Friday.

Though Pezeshkian planned to continue supporting his nation’s proxy, the Iranian president claimed Monday that he did not seek to widen the conflict with Israel.

“We want to live in peace,” Pezeshkian told reporters, according to the Washington Post. “We don’t wish to be the cause of instability in the region.”

“We know more than anyone else that if a larger war were to erupt in the Middle East, it will not benefit anyone throughout the world. It is Israel that seeks to create this wider conflict,” he added.

While Israel has moved toward full-scale war, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists it is only in reaction to the continued barrage of attacks – which are funded by Tehran.

Last week, Israel’s security cabinet approved “returning the residents of the north securely to their homes” as a formal war objective.

That followed Netanyahu’s declaration that a political settlement alone would not return displaced citizens to northern Israel, and that the IDF was “preparing for a broad campaign” to accomplish that objective.

As the anniversary of Hamas’ attack approaches, Pezeshkian also denied paying pro-terror protesters on American college campuses, as recently alleged by US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

“We have a hard time making domestic payroll – how do we make payroll for American students?” he quipped.

The Israel Foreign Ministry on Monday slammed Pezeshkian on X, calling him “just the latest pawn of the Iranian regime, committed to furthering the Supreme Leader’s agenda of violence and terror.”