Addressing a ceremony on Thursday, coinciding with National Park Ranger Day, Pezeshkian highlighted the potential for cooperation, stating that regional nations have common interests and shared religious and cultural bonds to overcome difficulties.
We are brothers with all our neighboring countries, and we are all Muslims; therefore, we can assist one another and safeguard regional security, he argued.
Emphasizing the need to prevent external threats from destabilizing West Asia, the President said the region had no need of actors from the other side of the globe — who themselves commit atrocities or support criminals, murderers, and terrorists — to claim they are concerned about security.
Elsewhere in his speech, Pezeshkian also criticized the contradictory actions and claims of certain foreign powers, saying how can they claim to be fighting terrorism after having committed atrocities themselves.
“Were the children in Minab terrorists?” Pezeshkian asked about the American bombing of an Iranian school earlier this year, resulting in the martyrdom of nearly 170 children. He taunted the United States for proclaiming itself the defender of human rights but failing to ensure accountability regarding the innocent victims.
Pointing to double standards concerning human rights, Pezeshkian said that upon the slightest issue arising in other countries, they miss no chance to cite human rights and shed “crocodile tears.” Those whose hands are stained with the blood of innocent people have no standing to speak of human rights or to castigate others, he insisted.
The President further noted that although a significant portion of the US budget is being allocated to military — expenditures sustained through plunder, looting, and atrocities — yet these very same nations claim to be defenders of human rights.
