NEW YORK: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic has never sought, and will never seek, to build nuclear weapons, insisting that Iran does not aim to develop a nuclear bomb.
“I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb. We do not seek nuclear weapons,” Pezeshkian said during his address at the UN.
“The one disturbing peace and stability in the region is Israel, but Iran is the one that gets punished,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention that on August 28, Britain, France, and Germany launched a 30-day process to reimpose UN sanctions that ends on September 27, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.
The European powers have offered to delay reinstating sanctions for up to six months to allow space for talks on a long-term deal if Iran restores access for UN nuclear inspectors, addresses concerns about its stock of enriched uranium, and engages in talks with the United States.
President Pezeshkian accused the so-called E3 of triggering the process to return international sanctions on Iran at “the behest of the United States of America”.
The president said the moral foundation of all religions and human conscience is the golden rule – not to wish for others what one would not wish for oneself – but argued that the world had failed to uphold it.
He said that in the past two years, the international community witnessed killings and destruction in Gaza, repeated violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, devastation of Syrian infrastructure, assaults on Yemen, and the forced starvation of children in their mothers’ arms, adding that these crimes had been backed by the US – the most heavily armed government in the world – under the pretext of self-defense, asking who in reality posed a threat to regional and global stability.
The president condemned a “brutal” attack on Iran in June, saying Israeli and US airstrikes on cities, homes, and infrastructure violated international law and came while Tehran was engaged in diplomatic talks.
He said the strikes killed commanders, civilians, children, women, scientists, and national elites, dealing a heavy blow to trust and prospects for peace.
Pezeshkian denounced nearly two years of genocide, starvation, and apartheid in Gaza. He said Israel’s leadership had recently spoken of an “absurd and delusional” plan for a “Greater Israel,” adding that the scheme revealed the true intentions of the Israeli regime and left no country immune from its ambitions.
He also welcomed a defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, describing it as a step toward a comprehensive regional security framework involving Muslim countries of West Asia in political, security, and defence fields.
