This is huge but is not really being covered in the news. Today:
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said neighbouring countries will no longer be targeted unless an attack originates from there, as the war launched by the United States and Israel, which triggered sustained retaliation from Tehran across the Gulf and beyond, enters its second week.
Pezeshkian said the Iranian interim leadership council approved the motion to stop attacks on neighbouring nations. In remarks carried by Iranian media, the president also apologised to neighbouring countries for the strikes that took place in recent days.
Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also weighed in.
“Following the statements of the president, the armed forces once again declare that they respect the interests and national sovereignty of neighbouring countries and, up to this point, have committed no aggression against them,” an IRGC statement carried by state media said.
“However, should the previous hostile actions continue, all military bases and interests of criminal America and the fake Zionist regime on land, at sea, and in the air across the region will be considered primary targets and will come under the powerful and crushing strikes of the mighty armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Pezeshkian later clarified on X that Iran hadn’t in fact attacked any of its neighbours but rather “targeted US military bases, facilities, and installations in the region”.
Tehran’s commitment to good relations with its neighbours, he said, “does not negate Iran’s inherent right to defend itself against military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime”.