Iran’s President Challenges West as UN Meeting Exposes Rifts
(Bloomberg) -- Iran’s new president, making his global debut before the United Nations General Assembly, managed to dominate the day Tuesday by warning Israel’s attacks on Lebanon “cannot go unanswered,” while also urging Western nations to come back to a nuclear accord and lift sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
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President Masoud Pezeshkian drew more attention for his dual messages of threat and cooperation than the day’s other star speakers, including Joe Biden, making his farewell appearance as US president at the UN rostrum with a plea for collective action to address current and emerging global challenges.
Hanging over the day was Israel’s promise to press ahead with its military campaign in Lebanon, escalating concern that an all-out war in the Mideast may be close at hand.
Pezeshkian, a relative moderate within Iran’s constrained political spectrum, worked to balance two different mandates: easing the Islamic Republic’s economic isolation while also responding to Israel’s escalating war with Iran-backed Hezbollah to its north and Hamas to the south.
“We are ready to engage with nuclear deal parties if the nuclear deal’s commitments are implemented fully and in good faith,” Pezeshkian said, referring to a 2015 agreement placing limits on Iran’s nuclear program. Former President Donald Trump quit the pact in 2018 and reimposed a crippling sanctions regime.
Pezeshkian called on the US and its partners to remove sanctions on Iran in order to “lay the foundations for further agreement.”
The substance of Pezeshkian’s address to the UN General Assembly didn’t differ much from that of his predecessors, but his tone was far more understated.
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The likelihood of successful nuclear talks appeared dim, especially given Iran’s backing of the militias at war with Israel. But he had one potential taker for talks: Pezeshkian told Bloomberg News that plans are underway to discuss a revival of the nuclear deal after a “positive” meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron’s office said his country is willing to solve differences with Iran under clear parameters.
Still, calling Israel’s bombardment of Gaza “desperate barbarism,” Pezeshkian made clear in his UN remarks that Iran won’t ease its support of its allied forces in the face of stepped-up Israeli attacks.
More than 500 people, including 50 children, have been killed by Israel’s bombardment of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon so far. The escalation by the key US ally increases the likelihood of all-out war with the Islamist group, the most powerful of Iran’s allied militant forces across the Middle East.
“A diplomatic move is always better than a confrontation,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon wrote on X. Even so, he said, “we are determined to restore security to our citizens in any possible way.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to arrive in New York later in the week and address the General Assembly on Friday. Earlier Tuesday, he said air strikes would continue, and a top Israeli general said the country is destroying military infrastructure Hezbollah has built over 20 years.
The conflict hung over the first day of the General Assembly debate in New York, with several leaders who took to the podium criticizing Israel’s attacks. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for “coercive measures” against Israel while others repeated demands for a cease-fire.
In a speech earlier in the day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres aimed a thinly veiled accusation at Israel — as well as others such as Russia for its action in Ukraine — saying the “level of impunity in the world is politically indefensible and morally intolerable.”
Others, such as Biden, were milder. Urging de-escalation in the Middle East, he said full-scale war “is not in anyone’s interest.”
The danger of escalation was set to be a major theme on Wednesday as well. The UN Security Council was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting on the situation in Lebanon in a bid to push for both sides to back down.
The violence flared last week with a series of explosions that targeted pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah. Israel didn’t take credit for sabotaging the devices but officials including Pezeshkian condemned the strike, which killed more than 25 people and wounded hundreds.
Worse for Iran, the country’s ambassador to Lebanon was among the wounded.
Pezeshkian’s appeal to come back to talks faces a cold reception from the US, which says Iran’s funding of Hamas, Hezbollah and other proxies makes talks of rapprochement impossible. He’ll also have to attend to the priorities of hard-line institutions back home.
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Those include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, both of which will be weighing how to respond to Israel’s worsening attacks on a critical ally.
“Some of Iran’s competing objectives are in clear conflict now,” said Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group. “It’s hard to get an economic reprieve from the West when Iran is on the opposite side of two conflicts the West cares about: Ukraine and Gaza-Lebanon.”
Vaez was referring to another alliance that has angered the US and its allies — the strengthening military ties between Iran and Russia. US and UK officials have accused Iran of supplying ballistic missiles to Russia, a charge Pezeshkian denied in a meeting with reporters in New York on Monday. He said he doesn’t approve of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
According to Tehran-based economist Saeed Laylaz, Iran hasn’t responded to Israel with force in part because of its desire for sanctions relief. That’s a critical step toward attracting desperately needed foreign investment, and time may be running out with Trump seeking to return to the White House.
“I don’t believe that Iran will make a big move that will bring it directly into this conflict,” Laylaz said. That “will work in favor of Netanyahu and Trump, and that’s what the Islamic Republic will avoid.”
--With assistance from Jon Herskovitz.
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