ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday announced that Tehran has decided not to attack neighboring countries and suspend missile strikes "unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries," coming after a week of incessant Iranian strikes on regional countries.

In an address to the nation broadcast on state television, Pezeshkian apologized "to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran" following retaliatory actions taken in the US-Israeli military campaign against the country that has seen Tehran strike myriad Gulf states, as well as Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, in a retaliatory campaign largely aimed at American military bases in the region.

Iraq holds the dubious honor of being the only country targeted by both sides of the conflict, with the US and Israel striking pro-Iran militias in southern Iraq while the US Consulate General in Erbil and US military sites in the Kurdistan Region have been bombed by Iran.

"The interim leadership council agreed yesterday that no more attacks will be made on neighboring countries and no missiles will be fired unless an attack on Iran originates from those countries," the Iranian president said in his speech.

"I hope that for those neighboring countries where certain groups or factions are thinking of using this opportunity to attack our soil, I give them this message: it is better that they do not become pawns in the hands of imperialism."

Tehran has loudly responded to the threat of Kurdish opposition groups based in the Kurdistan Region launching a US- and Israeli-backed ground offensive across the border, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday announcing that "if separatist groups in the region make any move against Iran's territorial integrity, we will crush them."

The prospect, first reported on by US media outlets, has been roundly denied by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), who insist that Erbil will remain uninvolved in the conflict and will not support any dissident cross-border offensive.

In a statement on Thursday, KRG spokesperson Peshawa Hawramani denounced the claims as “completely unfounded," saying, "We categorically deny them and affirm that they are being published deliberately and maliciously.” 

Similarly, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the reports of the US and Israel arming such factions to prepare a land campaign are "completely false." 

Trump, however, told Reuters on Thursday that he thought it "wonderful" that Kurdish opposition groups, who recently formed a new joint coalition, should seek to take such action, adding that he "can't tell you" whether or not US air cover would support a land incursion.

The prospect of suspended Iranian missile strikes proves welcome news for Middle Eastern governments who have repeatedly condemned Iranian strikes.