Americans on Monday morning got a chance to see the recent Israel–Iran war through an unfamiliar lens: the Iranian government’s.
The conservative journalist Tucker Carlson interviewed Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who depicted Israel as a belligerent rogue state and urged President Donald Trump not to let the U.S. be dragged into “forever wars” in the Middle East. Last month, Trump authorized strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and then pushed Tehran and Jerusalem toward a ceasefire.
Asked about the conflict, Pezeshkian said, “We did not start this war, and we do not want this war to continue in any way.”
Pezeshkian said that Israel, by launching a war of aggression against Iran, destroyed talks between Washington and Tehran over the Iranian nuclear program. “Israel torpedoed the negotiating table,” Pezehskian said. “We were sitting at the negotiating table when it happened, and by doing this, they totally ruined and destroyed diplomacy.”
The Iranian leader observed that Israel’s strikes killed off-duty military commanders, nuclear scientists, and their families. And he said that Israel tried to assassinate even him, observing that it had bombarded an area in which he was holding a meeting. Pezeshkian, a reformist who has advocated engagement with the West, struck a defiant note, saying, “I am not afraid of sacrificing myself in defense of my country.”
Pezeshkian denied claims that Tehran has tried to assassinate Trump, saying that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had put the idea into Americans’ minds. He also denied that Tehran is building nuclear weapons, emphasizing that Iran’s supreme leader has issued a religious decree prohibiting the development and use of nuclear weapons.
The interview aired Monday morning. After Carlson teased it Saturday, Iran hawks in America and Israel slammed him for “platforming” a U.S. adversary. The talk show host Mark Levin called Carlson an “incoherent buffoon” and a “toady for our enemies.” Carlson has said that Levin is among the pro-Israel voices pushing Trump to wage war against Iran.
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