09-07-2025
WASHINGTON: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he believes Iran can resolve its differences with the United States through dialogue but trust would be an issue after US and Israeli attacks on his country, according to an interview released yesterday.
“I am of the belief that we could very much easily resolve our differences and conflicts with the United States through dialogue and talks,” Pezeshkian told conservative US podcaster Tucker Carlson in an interview conducted on Saturday.
The Iranian leader urged US President Donald Trump not to be drawn into war with Iran by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is visiting Washington on Monday for talks at the White House.
“The United States’ President, Mr. Trump, he is capable enough to guide the region towards the peace and a brighter future and put Israel in its place. Or get into a pit, an endless pit, or a swamp,” Pezeshkian said. “So it is up to the United States president to choose which path.”
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said she was not sure if Trump had seen the Iranian president’s comments but agreed he was the right man to move the region towards peace.
Pezeshkian blamed Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy, for the collapse of talks that were in place when Israel began its strikes on Iran on June 13, starting a 12-day air war with Israel in which top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists were killed.
“How are we going to trust the United States again?” Pezeshkian said. “How can we know for sure that in the middle of the talks the Israeli regime will not be given the permission again to attack us?”
Pezeshkian also said that Israel tried to assassinate him.
“They did try, yes,” he said. “They acted accordingly, but they failed.”
Israel did not immediately respond to the allegation. A senior Israeli military official said last month that Israel killed more than 30 senior security officials and 11 senior nuclear scientists in its attack on to Iran’s nuclear sites.
Trump said he expected to discuss Iran and its nuclear ambitions with Netanyahu, praising the US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as a tremendous success. He told reporters that he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently, although Iran could restart efforts elsewhere.
Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.
“It was not the United States that was behind the attempt on my life. It was Israel. I was in a meeting … they tried to bombard the area in which we were holding that meeting,” he said, according to a translation of his remarks from Persian into English.
On June 16, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also did not rule out plans to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying it would “end the conflict” after reports emerged at the time that US President Donald Trump had vetoed the move.
While a ceasefire between Iran and Israel has been in place since June 24, during the interview with Carlson, Pezeshkian accused Netanyahu of pursuing his “own agenda” of “forever wars” in the Middle East and urged Trump not to be drawn into war with Iran by the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu is visiting Washington on Monday for talks at the White House. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)