by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Chief International Correspondent
TEHRAN/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Iran’s president has urged an end to the war with the United States in a daring pushback against Islamic hardliners who want to continue the armed conflict, which has also left minority Christians suffering in prisons and elsewhere.
“It would be better to end the war today, when we have power and dignity, and with the whole world acknowledging our victory,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said, according to Iran’s semi-official Students’ News Agency.
Pezeshkian, Iran’s highest elected official but subordinate to the country’s supreme leadership on major security matters, has joined other senior officials advocating diplomacy as economic hardship mounts.
His comments came as the months-long conflict showed few signs of a lasting resolution following the collapse of an earlier ceasefire, while U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s administration prepared a new campaign of economic pressure against Tehran.
HARDLINERS RESIST
Iranian military hardliners have argued that Tehran should continue fighting, with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps signaling a more offensive military posture and insisting Iran can withstand further pressure.
Washington hopes tougher sanctions, restrictions on Iranian trade and pressure on Tehran’s international partners can force the Islamic Republic to accept U.S. terms for ending the conflict. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was expected to unveil additional measures aimed at further isolating Iran economically.
The war has compounded an already severe economic crisis for ordinary Iranians, with soaring inflation, a weakened currency and sharply rising prices for basic necessities.
Among those caught in the crisis are Iran’s Christians, particularly converts from Islam and members of underground house churches who faced arrests and lengthy prison sentences even before the latest hostilities.
CHRISTIANS IN PRISON
Rights monitors say Christian prisoners have been especially vulnerable during the fighting. Evin Prison in Tehran, which has held numerous Christians detained over their religious activities, was previously struck during Israeli military operations, exposing inmates to the dangers of warfare as well as imprisonment, well-informed sources say.
Christians transferred from Evin have reported severe overcrowding and inadequate conditions, while rights organizations have described shortages of clean water, acceptable food and basic sanitation at detention facilities.
Iranian authorities often regard evangelical Christianity and house-church activities as national-security threats. Converts from Islam and those accused of evangelizing have faced charges including “propaganda against the state” and other national-security offenses.
Among those imprisoned is Iranian-Armenian Christian Joseph Shahbazian, who was rearrested in February 2025 and returned to Evin Prison. A Revolutionary Court later sentenced him to 10 years in prison, while authorities confiscated personal property including Bibles and Christian literature, according to religious-freedom monitors.
PERSECUTION CONTINUES
Christian aid and advocacy group Open Doors ranks Iran among the world’s most difficult countries for Christians, saying converts worshipping through underground churches risk raids, interrogations and lengthy prison terms.
Recognized Armenian, Assyrian and Chaldean churches have greater constitutional protections but also face restrictions, particularly on Persian-language worship and evangelism among Muslims.
The conflict has added to the hardships facing religious minorities and other civilians already struggling with economic turmoil, government repression and military strikes.
Pezeshkian’s intervention underscored a widening debate within Iran over how long the Islamic Republic can sustain the confrontation. While hardliners insist Tehran can continue fighting, the president suggested that declaring victory and pursuing diplomacy now would preserve Iran’s “power and dignity” while potentially bringing relief to those caught in the crossfire.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Mossad chief Roman Gofman reportedly met Sunday with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in a U.S.-mediated effort to calm rising tensions after Israel’s recent airstrike on the Abu al-Duhur airbase in northern Syria.
Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday temporarily allowed the Trump administration to continue construction on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, pausing a lower court order that would have halted much of the project while the legal fight continues.
The death toll from a Russian drone strike on a crowded shopping center in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown rose to at least 16 Sunday, as Kyiv pleaded for more air-defense interceptors and France promised additional missiles amid mounting concerns that the conflict is increasingly affecting security across Europe.
Iran’s president has urged an end to the war with the United States in a daring pushback against Islamic hardliners who want to continue the armed conflict, which has also left minority Christians suffering in prisons and elsewhere.
Hungary said Saturday it had begun restarting one of three nuclear reactors shut down because of record-low water levels in the Danube River, while neighboring Romania and Bulgaria also struggled to maintain nuclear power production amid a severe regional drought.
A military airstrike on a Buddhist monastery in Myanmar, also known as Burma, killed at least 14 people and wounded 20 others who were taking part in a meditation retreat, opposition representatives and residents said Saturday.
Iran urged Qatar on Saturday to transfer three Iranian fighter pilots it claims are being detained “on water” to a hospital on land, saying they are in poor physical condition, amid mounting tensions over the war involving Iran, Israel and the United States.