Iran's new reformist president insisted Monday that Tehran didn't want to enrich uranium at near-weapons grade levels but had been forced to by the U.S. withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers.
The comments by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in response to a question by The Associated Press at his first news conference, underlines a campaign promise he made to try to see international sanctions on the Islamic Republic lifted. However, it remains unclear just how much room for negotiation Pezeshkian will have - and just who will be in the White House come next year.
"I think, we said many times, we don't want to do this at all. We want to solve our technical and scientific needs, we are not looking for nuclear weapons," Pezeshkian said. "We adhered to the framework written in the (nuclear deal). We are still looking to maintain those frameworks. They tore them, they forced us to do something."
He added: "If they don't continue, we will not continue,"
Pezeshkian's comments came as Iran enriches uranium up to 60% purity, which is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, but Western nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had a military nuclear program up until 2003.
