UNITED NATIONS: Tehran is ready to end its nuclear stalemate with the West, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, while calling for an end to Ukraine war through talks.
Iran hopes to see an easing of American sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy, Reuters reported.
Former President Donald Trump abandoned Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with six world powers in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Tehran. Efforts to revive the deal had failed.
Iran’s ties with the West have worsened since Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7 and as Iran has increased its support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
President Pezeshkian, a moderate politician who took office in August pledging a pragmatic foreign policy, condemned Iran’s arch-enemy Israel for what he called “its genocide in Gaza.”
He said that it is imperative that the world should immediately secure a permanent truce in Gaza and bring an end to the desperate brutality of Israel in Lebanon, before it engulfs the entire region and the world.
An Israeli attack on Beirut killed a top commander of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon on Tuesday as cross-border rocket strikes by both sides increased fears of a complete-fledged war. Pezeshkian stated that they seek peace for all and have no intention of war with any country. Tehran opposes war and stresses the need for an immediate cessation of military conflict in Ukraine, he said.
Moscow has cultivated closer relations with Tehran since the start of its conflict with Kyiv and has said it is preparing to ink a wide-ranging cooperation deal with Iran.
Tehran has brokered the current secret talks between Moscow and Yemen’s Houthi rebels to transfer anti-ship missiles to that militant group, Reuters reported, a development that highlights Iran’s deepening relations to Russia.
