Iran's president says Tehran will seek dialogue but resist excessive demands

Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Tehran would try to resolve the war through dialogue, according to a news alert published by the Israeli outlet Ynet. The alert quoted him as saying Iran would attempt to settle what he called the problem by talking.

In a fuller account, the Hebrew-language site News.co.il reported that Pezeshkian also said Iran would stand firm against what he described as the "lies and excessive demands" of its adversaries, and that it would not give in to them. He said the country was working toward a solution through negotiation while strengthening national resilience and dealing with pressure and crises. According to the same report, he added that Iran's supreme leader had given the government powers to move the contacts forward.

Two messages in one statement

As reported, the president's remarks carried two strands at once. One was an offer of dialogue: Iran, he said, was seeking a way out through talks. The other was a statement of limits: Tehran would not accept demands it regards as excessive, and it would resist pressure from its rivals. The reports do not set out which demands he had in mind, or which adversaries he was addressing by name.

The Ynet alert, which was a brief headline linking to a longer item on its website, carried only the dialogue element. The News.co.il report gave both the conciliatory and the defiant parts of the statement, along with the reference to the supreme leader. The two accounts do not contradict each other; they differ in how much of the statement they include.

Who holds authority in Iran

For readers less familiar with Iran's political system, the reference to the supreme leader is the most significant detail in the reports. Iran has an elected president who heads the government, but final authority on major questions of state, including war and foreign policy, rests with the supreme leader, a cleric who sits above the elected institutions. A president speaking about negotiations is therefore working within limits set by the leader.

That is why Pezeshkian's remark that the supreme leader had granted the government authority to advance contacts matters. As reported by News.co.il, it indicates that any talks the government pursues have approval from the top of the system, rather than being an initiative of the presidency alone. The reports do not describe the scope of that authority or when it was given.

Who reported it

Both reports come from Israeli Hebrew-language news services that publish rapid alerts on the messaging app Telegram. Neither report cites an Iranian state outlet or describes the setting in which Pezeshkian spoke, such as a speech, an interview or a cabinet meeting. The wording attributed to him is therefore available here only through these Hebrew summaries, which we have rendered into English in our own words.

What the reports do not say

The reports leave several questions open:

• Which war. Neither report names the conflict the president was referring to, or the parties Iran is fighting.
• Which demands. Pezeshkian is reported to have rejected excessive demands, but the reports do not say what those demands are or who made them.
• Which contacts. The reports mention contacts the supreme leader has authorised the government to advance, but do not say with whom, through which intermediaries, or at what level.
• The setting. There is no detail on where or to whom the president was speaking.
• Any response. Neither report includes a reaction from Israel, the United States or any other government.

Until fuller accounts emerge, the statement stands as reported: a declared preference for dialogue, paired with a refusal to yield to pressure, and a claim that the government has the supreme leader's backing to pursue contacts.