Pezeshkian: Once Muslims sit together, Iran has no meaning

Masoud Pezeshkian, president of the Islamic Republic, in a new interview with the Qatari network Al Jazeera played down Iran's national identity against what he calls the "Islamic ummah". He said that if Muslims sit together, there is no longer any talk of an Arab country, Turkey or Iran, and what matters is piety, not nationality.

In one part of the interview Pezeshkian said: "If we Muslims sit together, first of all, there is no longer an Arab country, a Turkey or an Iran..." These words come from someone who officially holds the title of president of Iran and is supposed to represent the national interests of Iranians.

Kasra Aarabi's reaction to Pezeshkian's remarks

Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at the organization United Against Nuclear Iran, wrote on X on Sunday, 18 October 2026, that these remarks might be dismissed as propaganda aimed at the Islamic world, but in fact reveal how the rulers of the Islamic Republic view power and the world. According to him, these rulers believe in a global "ummah", divide the world into "Dar al-Islam" and "Dar al-Kufr", and the concept of "Iran" is meaningless to them because they regard the nation-state as a Western idea. Aarabi added that for them nationalism is merely a propaganda tool to win over domestic and foreign audiences.

Background: national interests sacrificed to ummah-building

Critics of the Islamic Republic have said for years that this government has sacrificed Iran's national interests and territorial integrity to an ideology of ummah-building and to expanding regional influence through proxy groups. Iranians have paid the cost of this policy: from the money and weapons poured into Lebanon's Hezbollah, whose halt even Lebanon's foreign minister has now demanded, to support for the Houthis in Yemen, because of which the Yemeni government rejected Tehran's mediation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also earlier described the clerics ruling Iran as hardline leaders with an apocalyptic outlook who spend the country's money on weapons and "exporting the revolution" instead of improving Iranians' lives.

Pezeshkian's remarks come as Iranians, in the uprisings of recent years, have drawn a clear line between Iran and the Islamic Republic with slogans in defense of national identity, the Lion and Sun flag and Iran's history.

The Islamic Republic's president called Iran and nationality unimportant against the "Islamic ummah".