By Times of Israel—
Iran’s sole Jewish parliamentarian said the Islamic Republic is not seeking war with Israel and asserted that Tehran knows that launching an attack on the Jewish state would amount to “suicide.”
“Iran does not want to start a war against Israel, because they know that everyone who starts a war in the Middle East is doing suicide,” Siamak Moreh Sedgh told Israel Radio in an English-language interview aired Sunday morning.
Sedgh said he believed the Iranian leadership to be “healthy and wise enough to avoid a war with Israel.”
“Relations between Iran and Israel more stable than ever before since the signing of the nuclear agreement last year,” he said.
“Two, three years ago I was suspicious about Netanyahu, I think he is crazy enough to start a war, but today, the condition of the world after the agreement is better, and the Middle East is more stable,” Sedgh said.
He added that war was not “probable” at the moment.
Last year, Iran and six world powers led by the US reached an agreement that promised economic sanctions relief to Tehran in return for it curtailing key activities in its controversial nuclear program.
Israel has been a prominent opponent of the 2015 deal, which it argues entrenches the regime, provides sanctions relief that will enable Iran to fund terrorism, and paves Iran’s path to nuclear weapons.
Netanyahu — a leading critic of the deal with Tehran– reportedly mulled a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2010.
To this day, Netanyahu maintains that Israel will act alone if necessary to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons
Iran has insisted it is not interested in nuclear weapons, and the pact is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA said Tehran has essentially kept to its commitments since the agreement was implemented in January.