Iran Never Seeks To Develop Nuclear Weapons: Pezeshkian

(MENAFN- IANS) Tehran, Feb 6 (IANS) Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed on Thursday that his country has never sought to develop nuclear weapons.

He made the remarks at a ceremony in Tehran to mark the 46th anniversary of the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to a statement by his office.

The ceremony was attended by foreign ambassadors and representatives of international organisations in Iran's capital.

Pezeshkian said, "We do not seek (to develop) nuclear weapons. Iran's (Supreme) Leader (Ali Khamenei) has explicitly declared this by issuing a fatwa (religious decree)."

Verifying that Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons is not difficult at all, he added, noting, "They (inspectors) have so far come and investigated it whenever they have wanted, and from now on, can come and check that again a hundred times. We will never go after developing nuclear weapons."

The remarks came as US President Donald Trump on Tuesday took an executive action to restore the "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran, aiming to prevent the country from obtaining nuclear weapons.

On Wednesday night, Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on social media platform X that "the so-called maximum pressure is a failed experience," warning repeating this would only cause "maximum resistance" by Iran, Xinhua news agency reported.

Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, accepting restrictions on its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions.

However, the United States withdrew from the agreement in May 2018 and reinstated sanctions, prompting Iran to scale back some of its nuclear commitments.

Efforts to revive the JCPOA commenced in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria. Despite multiple rounds of negotiations, no substantial progress has been reported since the last talks in August 2022.

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