Pezeshkian says Iran ‘no longer trusts negotiations with Washington’ | US-Israeli war against Iran

President Masoud Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera that Iran no longer has confidence in negotiations with the United States after previous rounds of negotiations were followed by attacks and sanctions, as Tehran awaits a response to its latest proposal to end the war.

“We have no confidence in the American side and we do not know on what basis an agreement can be reached with them,” Pezeshkian told the Qatari TV channel in an interview broadcast on Saturday.

Pezeshkian and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visited the United States this week for the United Nations gathering of world leaders and proposed a deal that would end fighting in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and unblock the Strait of Hormuz within seven days.

Araghchi told reporters Friday that the first steps would take four to five days, that the Strait of Hormuz would reopen on the sixth day, and that “on the seventh day, talks with the United States would begin for a final agreement on mutually agreed topics,” referring to Iran’s nuclear program.

Under the plan, Washington would lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, lift sanctions on Iranian oil sales, release about $12 billion in frozen Iranian assets and observe a ceasefire covering the region, including Lebanon and Yemen.

In exchange, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed before the war, and which has become Tehran’s main lever.

Pezeshkian told Al Jazeera that mediators Qatar and Pakistan were conveying Iran’s messages to Washington. He said the negotiations were based on the previous memorandum of understanding reached by the two sides in June, and that the United States needed to clarify its position on that agreement, which lapsed last month.

The war began in late February, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Blocking Hormuz, “a natural response”

Pezeshkian also denied that Iran was responsible for blocking the Strait of Hormuz, saying the United States “closed the roads in front of us.” He described the closure as “a natural response when routes to Iran are cut.”

He said the crisis could be resolved through negotiation rather than force, and that the waterway would be reopened to commercial shipping if negotiations ended the war.

Pezeshkian called the United States the aggressor in the conflict, saying Iran “has not attacked any country in 200 years.” He said the United States and Israel had dragged regional countries into war, convinced that the Iranian system would “collapse within days.”

“We have resisted American and Israeli attacks and we will continue to stand our ground,” he said, adding that neither the assassination of an Iranian commander nor economic pressure had caused the Iranians to retreat.

He said Israel and the United States attacked Iran from the airspace of Islamic countries, and that Iran targets bases used by American forces in the region because operations against it are launched from them. Tehran seeks nothing outside international law, he said, and only responds when others violate the rules.

Pezeshkian also linked the imposition of sanctions against Iran to tactics used by Israel in its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

“Those who are denying the Iranians medicine and raw materials are the same ones who cut off food and water in Gaza,” he said, adding that anyone who thought the Iranians might be targeted by sanctions had “miscalculated.”

“We don’t need a regional police officer”

Pezeshkian also said that regional security could be ensured through cooperation between countries in the region. “We don’t need a regional police officer,” he said.

He accused the United States and Israel of seeking to pit Islamic countries against each other to control the region’s resources. He also said that Saudi Arabia is capable of playing a role in unifying the Islamic world.

On Yemen, where fighting has intensified between Iran-aligned Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, he said the Houthis’ actions were not linked to Iran and that Tehran stood in solidarity with “all those subjected to injustice.”

He urged the Houthis and Saudi Arabia to resolve their differences through dialogue, saying “brother should not fight brother”, and offered Iran’s help in ending the dispute. “We will not be warmongers,” he said.

“Unity and cohesion”

On domestic politics, Pezeshkian accused Iran’s “enemies” of trying to stoke disagreements among Iranian officials, insisting that the country is experiencing “unprecedented unity and cohesion.”

He said he met twice with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since the war began, including one meeting that lasted seven hours and discussed crucial issues. He pledged to overcome what he called “the accumulated imbalances in Iran’s internal situation.”

The United States and Israel want to prevent Iran from becoming self-reliant, he said, “but we will invest in our people.”