Pezeshkian says Israel is trying to draw Iran into a regional war

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused Israel of attempting to draw his country into a regional war as he pointed to the killing of a leading member of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran more than six weeks ago.

"Israel is trying to entangle us in a regional war by the assassination of Haniyeh. We reserve the right to defend ourselves," the new Iranian president said on Monday during his first press conference following his inauguration.

Haniyeh, officially the chairman of Hamas' Political Bureau, was killed in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied a role in Haniyeh's death.

Pezeshkian also reiterated that Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons while also defending his country's missile programme. "If we don't have missiles, they [Israel] will bomb us at any time, just like in Gaza," he said. "We will not give up our defensive capability."

One of his government's foreign policy goals is a rapprochement with the West, he said.

When asked by a journalist whether he would meet the new US president after the elections in November, Pezeshkian said, "a direct meeting requires that promises are kept."

"They should not impose sanctions and threaten us, then we will also be fraternal with them," he added.

The US and Israel have been considered arch-enemies of Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Fears have been soaring that a wider war will break out in the Middle East ever since the attacks on Israel by Hamas in October last year, and the subsequent war in Gaza. Tehran supports groups hostile to Israel, including Hamas and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Pezeshkian was elected president in July following the accidental death of his predecessor Ebrahim Raisi.

During the election campaign, Pezeshkian, seen as a conservative moderate, promised reforms including in civil rights.

However, so far his government has not introduced significantly different policies, and in Iran, the main power is held by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.