Image Credit: Sergio Mendoza Hochmann / Getty 
Two days before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s is expected to pitch President Trump on a new round of war with Iran, Iran’s president says the United States, Israel and Europe are already waging “full-fledged war” on Iran, and that a return to kinetic warfare will result in a “more decisive response” than the retaliation witnessed during June’s 12-day war.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s comments came in a 6,600-word interview published on the official website of the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. The wide-ranging discussion addressed the full spectrum of challenges the country is facing, including internal political, social, economic and cultural ones.
The “war” quote that’s making headlines came in the midst of a discussion of Iran’s attempt to make the most of finite energy resources, and immediately followed Pezeshkian’s listing of the many small ways he said he personally economizes with state resources, from ordering radiators be turned off in offices he seldom uses, to shutting down a heated swimming pool that was dedicated for his own use. Then, he pivoted, putting Iran’s struggles in the context of Israeli-Western efforts to weaken the country, from economic sanctions to attempting to foster internal discontent:
“In my opinion, we are in a full-fledged war with America, Israel, and Europe; they do not want our country to stand on its feet. This war is worse than Iraq’s war against us; if one understands it well, this war is far more complex and difficult than that war. In the war with Iraq, the situation was clear: they fired missiles, and I also knew where to hit.
Here, they are besieging us from every aspect, they are putting us in difficulty and constraint, creating problems – in terms of livelihood, culturally, politically, and security-wise – while raising society’s expectations. On one side, they block our sales, our exchanges, our trade, and on the other side, expectations in society have risen! Consequently, we must all help with all our might to fix the country.”
Next, the interviewer suggested that, after the Israeli-US “failure in the 12-Day War,” the two states turned to a “psychological and media operation” designed to portray the Iranian government as weak to the point it must surrender to outside demands lest it collapse from internal disunity. “Let them dwell in their fantasies,” replied Pezeshkian, a former heart surgeon who was elected in a July 2024 snap election following a helicopter crash that killed his predecessor and seven others. “They attacked us with this very illusion, but it only increased our internal unity and cohesion. What the Leader is doing now – creating coordination among the branches of power – ensures that if unanimity and empathy emerge, no power can incapacitate a cohesive and unified nation.”
When discussing the prospect of renewed military “mischief” by Israel and the United States, Pezeshkian said:
“Look, our dear military forces are doing their job with power. Despite all the problems we face, we are now – in terms of both equipment and personnel – far stronger than we were during their previous attacks. Therefore, if they choose to strike, they will naturally face a more decisive response. But I return to the point that if we, the people, stand together and remain united, they will lose all hope of ever attacking our country.”
Pezeshkian’s remarks come ahead of Netanyahu’s Monday’s visit to Mar-a-Lago, where he will reportedly lobby Trump to take more military action against Iran. Moving the goalposts, Israel now says neither Tel Aviv nor Washington should tolerate Iran’s rebuilding of the surprisingly formidable arsenal of hypersonic and other ballistic missiles the country used to retaliate when Israel initiated the 12-Day War in June. According to each country’s official tallies, more than 1,000 were killed in Iran, and 33 in Israel. The war was purportedly launched because of the threat of Iran developing a nuclear weapon, yet US intelligence has long concluded the country is not developing a weapon.
While mutual deterrence keeps pace among many rival nations, Israel has no interest in allowing that post-12-Day War status quo to continue, as the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi recently explained:
“In the case of Iran, after only nine days, [Israel] wanted a ceasefire and kept to it. The key reason for that is that the Iranian missiles inflicted significant damage on the Israelis. That is now the outcome of the war: Instead of Israel succeeding in subjugating Iran under its domination [as it did to Lebanon], we have now a situation of mutual deterrence. That is unacceptable for Netanyahu, it’s unacceptable for his legacy, and as a result, the likelihood of Israel trying to attack Iran again is very, very high, and that is on top of his agenda as he’s coming to [Florida on Monday].”
Meanwhile, the American right is in the midst of a growing civil war over US support for Israel. With a great many conservatives still incensed over Trump’s decision to support and then commit US forces to Israel’s war on Iran in June, the question is whether Trump’s instinctive subservience to Israel and its US-based collaborators will overcome reservations about blowing up the conservative coalition heading into next year’s high-stakes midterms.
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