Iran Ready to Open Nuclear Programme to Inspectors, Says Pezeshkian

Iran is prepared to place its nuclear programme under international verification and has no intention of building a nuclear weapon, President Masoud Pezeshkian has said, in remarks made on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Asked directly whether Iran sought an atomic bomb, Pezeshkian said it did not, citing a religious decree issued by the country's late supreme leader that he described as making such a weapon unlawful. He added that Tehran was willing to dilute its enriched material and accept monitoring, calling the step unremarkable.

The Iranian president also said his government remained willing to honour an understanding reached with Washington in June, which he said had been agreed and signed before it collapsed. He accused the United States of abandoning dialogue, alleging that Washington attacked Iran, killed its supreme leader and targeted its scientists and military commanders. The Strait of Hormuz, he noted, had remained open at the time.

Pezeshkian said Iran would continue to resist external pressure and would not yield to any foreign power, but placed the decision on ending the conflict with the US administration. He indicated that Tehran was not concerned with the timing of American elections, and that a settlement within international legal frameworks would be acceptable whenever it came.

Speaking to reporters at the UN gathering, he said Tehran hoped to revive the June ceasefire understanding before the US midterm elections in November, adding that Iran did not want the matter to reach that point.

His comments came as the conflict between the two countries entered its 209th day. In his address to the General Assembly, US President Donald Trump warned that he could destroy Iran if a deal to end the nearly seven-month war was not reached soon. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said an agreement would require hard work and that Trump had several options at his disposal, including military ones.

Pezeshkian reiterated in his UN speech that responsibility for starting the conflict lay with the United States and that Iran was acting in self-defence. He said Tehran would keep resisting and find ways to sustain the country, but did not wish the confrontation to continue, leaving it to Washington to decide whether to bring it to an end.