Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Washington must decide whether to end the war with Tehran, insisting that Iran does not want the conflict to continue as tensions between the two countries remain high.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News aired on Thursday, Pezeshkian was asked whether the war could end before the close of the year.
“We do not wish to continue,” he said, adding that the United States must decide whether it wants to end the fighting.
His remarks followed a speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, in which he declared that Iran would not surrender to American pressure, underscoring the deep divisions between Tehran and Washington over the terms of a settlement.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has threatened further military action if negotiations fail, saying on Tuesday that the United States could annihilate Iran while also suggesting that a deal to end the conflict could be reached soon.
The conflicting messages come nearly seven months after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, triggering Iranian retaliatory strikes against Israel and Gulf countries hosting American military bases.
Trump has repeatedly shifted his stated objectives and timelines for the war, citing the destruction or weakening of Iran’s nuclear capabilities as a central goal.
The conflict has spread across the Middle East, with US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Israeli military operations in Lebanon killing thousands and displacing millions.
Tehran has consistently denied seeking nuclear weapons and maintains that it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for civilian purposes under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
With both governments maintaining sharply different positions on how to end the fighting, Pezeshkian’s latest comments place the responsibility for the next move on Washington, even as the possibility of a diplomatic agreement remains unresolved.
