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East of the Euphrates: How Iran's Leaders See the Map

Americans are rarely told how Iran explains the war it is fighting. Iran's leaders do not say Israel wants to annex Iran. They say something more specific, and it matches the geography of the Greater Israel map: Iran sits just east of the Euphrates, outside the biblical line, and it is attacked because it is the strong state standing on that border. This page collects their words, and those of their allies, so a reader can hear the other side of the war in its own terms.

The supreme leader: "the eastern border"​

On 4 June 2026, Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, posted on X: "Imperialism, led by the US, has built a military base called Israel over the past 80 years. And they don't accept the existence of strong, independent Iran on the eastern border of the false, illegitimate geography of Greater Israel — that is, east of the Euphrates River" (Roya News English, 4 June 2026; Roya News on Threads; MenchOsint on X). A reader of Roya's post summed it up in one line: "with a nuclear Iran the Great Israel project would never materialize, that's why a vassal state in Iran is what they are looking for."

The president: "We're not looking for Greater Iran"​

President Masoud Pezeshkian, August 2026: "Their goal was to completely disarm us. If they do that, they'll come and destroy our land, just like they're doing in Gaza, and we'd be powerless. Is it right to let them strip us of our military and defense capabilities and bow down to them? We won't do that. However, we don't intend to invade other countries. We aren't seeking territory or expansion—unlike Zionist Israel, which aims for Greater Israel. We're not looking for Greater Iran. We see all these neighboring countries as our brothers... But Israel doesn't respect the borders of Islamic nations" (video caption posted on X, 7 August 2026).

The diplomats​

  • Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, April 2026: "The Israeli regime wanted to have the Greater Israel project and change the geopolitics of the region. This defense by Iran is being done on behalf of the entire region" (video, 18 April 2026).
  • Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, June 2026, posted a screenshot of Itamar Ben Gvir's "All of Lebanon needs to burn" as proof of Israeli intentions (Times of Israel, 21 June 2026).
  • Kamal Kharazi, head of Iran's Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said in October 2025 on the supreme leader's website that Israel seeks a "Greater Israel" from the Nile to the Euphrates (as reported by Israel Hayom, 23 October 2025). He was gravely wounded in an April 2026 strike on his home in Tehran that killed his wife (Al Jazeera, 2 April 2026).
  • An Iranian news account put the national argument bluntly: "The 'Greater Israel' project has not even a centimeter of Iran's land. Yet, Iran is fighting to save face and honor of the Muslim Ummah. We're the leading Muslim country in defending the right of Palestine & the Muslim's borders" (Daily Iran News on X, 21 June 2026).

The allies​

  • Hezbollah's Naim Qassem, June 2026: "The Zionist regime, with Trump's support, launched a war against Iran to weaken the resistance front. Netanyahu, believing that striking Iran as the pivot of the resistance would cause the collapse of other parts, sought the complete destruction of the resistance movement in the Islamic world" (post, 21 June 2026). And: "America and Israel sought to eliminate Iran by changing its regime and seizing control of the country" (as summarized by Zeinab Saffar of Al Mayadeen on X, 26 June 2026).
  • Yemen's Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree, March 2026, addressing Iranians: "The Zionists seek to change the map of the Middle East and form Greater Israel" (post, 11 March 2026).

Why their account matters​

These are the words of governments and armed groups at war with Israel, and they should be read that way. But on the central question, they line up with what Israeli sources themselves have said. Channel 14's English account wrote that Iran "is not a hindrance to the establishment of Greater Israel," so Israel should "focus on Syria before starting the war with Iran." An Israeli supporter of the maximal map wrote in Hebrew in March 2026 that the complete-Land-of-Israel plan "does not take territory from the Persians," only from the Arab states and Turkey (Dor Aharon on X, 11 March 2026, translation for this page). Iran's leaders and Israel's maximalists agree on where the line is. They disagree only on who should hold the land west of it.

Evidence rating: CONFIRMED that Iran's supreme leader, president, and diplomats describe Iran as the barrier on Greater Israel's eastern border.

Status: Mojtaba Khamenei, Masoud Pezeshkian, Saeed Khatibzadeh, Abbas Araghchi, Itamar Ben Gvir, Naim Qassem, and Yahya Saree are alive. Kamal Kharazi was reported gravely wounded in April 2026; his current condition is unknown.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t28__v325.md, twitter/t28__v326.md, twitter/t28__v328.md, twitter/t28__v330.md, twitter/t28__v331.md, twitter/t28__v332.md, twitter/t28__v333.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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