Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Thursday that Muslim states should not allow their territories to be used to launch attacks against other Muslim nations.

“Defending Iran does not mean hostility toward Muslim nations or neighbouring countries,” Pezeshkian said in an address broadcast on Iranian state television during the 40th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran.

“No Islamic country should allow its territory to be used as a launchpad for aggression against another Islamic country. No Islamic country should seek its own security through the insecurity of its neighbours,” he said.

Referring to the conflict with the US, Pezeshkian said large-scale US and Israeli military attacks against Iran began while diplomatic efforts between Tehran and Washington to resolve their differences were still underway.

He said Iran-US negotiations had resumed that same month in an effort to find a diplomatic solution when the attacks began, killing Iranian commanders, officials, scientists, students, schoolchildren and civilians, as well as targeting cities and infrastructure.

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According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, around 600 domestic and international guests from 40 countries, including Iraq, Pakistan, Turkiye, Lebanon and Afghanistan, are attending the conference.

The conference will continue through Sunday, with events in Tehran, Qom and Mashhad, as well as four specialised meetings in West Azerbaijan, Kordestan, Golestan and Razavi Khorasan provinces.

According to IRNA, Pezeshkian also said that Muslims “do not have to become identical to live together peacefully, arguing that differences should not turn members of the Islamic world into enemies.

“Unity does not mean becoming the same. It means that differences do not turn Muslims into each other’s enemies,” he said. According to IRNA, he added that Shias would remain Shias and Sunnis would remain Sunnis, while different schools of jurisprudence and theology, as well as nations, governments and national interests, would continue to exist.

IRNA reported that Pezeshkian proposed three measures for strengthening cooperation among Islamic countries. He called for a mutual security and non-aggression pact under which Muslim countries would respect each other’s territorial integrity, refrain from using their territory, airspace or facilities against other Islamic countries, and reject support for destabilisation and fragmentation.

Second, he proposed establishing a permanent mechanism for mediation and conflict prevention within the Islamic world, enabling the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to intervene before disputes escalate into armed conflicts.

Third, he called for transforming Islamic countries from separate markets into a network of practical economic and scientific cooperation. He proposed joint projects in artificial intelligence, medicine, water management, energy, agriculture and advanced technologies, alongside greater intra-Islamic trade and investment.