DUBAI, October 11. /TASS/. European countries and the United States don’t want to see peace and tranquility in the Middle East, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said.

"European countries and the United States don’t want relations between countries [in the Middle East] to develop peacefully," his press service quoted him as saying at a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

According to the Iranian president, the situation in the region has escalated dramatically because Israel doesn’t recognize "any international legal and humanitarian standards."

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on October 4 that the United States and its allies are backing Israel in the conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon only to get their hands on the Middle East's resources.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 250 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

Israel has been delivering massive airstrikes on Hezbollah military targets in Lebanon since September 23, when it launched Operation Northern Arrows. Israel’s declared goal is to create safe conditions in the country’s northern areas so that tens of thousands of local residents could return to their homes. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was reportedly killed in Israel’s strike on Beirut on September 27. In the early hours on October 1, Israel announced the launch of a ground operation in Lebanon’s border areas.