News - Middle East: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has chastised France and other Western countries for characterizing Israel’s ongoing genocide as “self-defense” in a meeting with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.

“By what rule can the crimes of the Zionists be justified, which the United States and certain Western countries, like France, describe as legitimate self-defense?” Pezeshkian said in the meeting held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

“Western countries should stop exercising double standards, as the status quo and mere verbal statements of condemnation have emboldened the Zionist regime,” he added.

Pezeshkian said whilst the so-called advocates of human rights tend to rally the world public opinion against an act of injustice committed in some other countries, they have kept mum on the brutalities being perpetrated against thousands of innocent people in Gaza and Lebanon.

He said Iran, in order to prevent an escalation of tensions and conflicts in the region, has exercised restraint in its response to Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

"The regime, on the contrary, has stepped up its crimes in Gaza and is now attacking Lebanon," Pezeshkian said.

“The peoples of Iran and the region are severely impacted by the Zionist regime’s crimes, and the continuation of these atrocities could spiral the situation out of control.”

France, the Iranian president said, can play an effective role in ending Israeli crimes.

Pezeshkian said the current situation in Gaza is "a lesson for us and all world countries that if we are not strong, a criminal regime will attack us in such a way".