Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian blamed the United States for the failure of an interim deal with Iran, in remarks broadcast on Iranian state television on Saturday, October 24, but said there should be a new attempt at concluding it, Reuters reported from Dubai.

Source: Reuters, Oct 24, 2026

"We were having negotiations, the cowards (Americans) messed everything up... I still think we should go and conclude it," Pezeshkian said, according to Reuters. The wire gave no further detail of the interim deal's terms in its initial report.

Source: Reuters, Oct 24, 2026

The Associated Press, in its Saturday Middle East roundup, reported the same remarks in fuller form: Pezeshkian accused Washington of disrupting negotiations to end the war but said he still believed "we have to go and finish it." His comments aired on state television. He said Iran's supreme leader had instructed Iranian officials to "go and finish it (the deal)," but "these scoundrels broke the rules of the game. We were holding talks, and they disrupted them." Pezeshkian did not give details, AP said.

Source: Associated Press, Oct 24, 2026

AP added that anxiety has been growing in Iran and elsewhere that the United States or Israel will resume attacks before or just after Tuesday's elections in Israel or the US midterm elections on November 3 — context that makes Pezeshkian's public insistence on returning to the deal a significant signal from Tehran's elected leadership, even as he placed the blame for the collapse on Washington. No immediate US response to Pezeshkian's remarks was reported by either wire in the reports cited here.

Source: Associated Press, Oct 24, 2026