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Iran will never try to build nuclear weapons, president tells IAEA chief

Masoud Pezeshkian accused the US of derailing the agreements around Iran's nuclear program

DUBAI, November 14. /TASS/. Iran will never seek to build nuclear weapons as the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has forbidden it, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at a meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Raphael Grossi.

"Based on the fatwa of the supreme leader, we have not sought and will not seek to build nuclear weapons in any way, and no one is allowed to deviate from this policy," Pezeshkian said, according to a statement from his office.

"We declare our readiness to cooperate and move closer to this international institution to resolve the alleged problems and dispel doubts about our country's peaceful nuclear activities," he went on to say.

The president accused the US of derailing the agreements around Iran's nuclear program.

"According to IAEA reports, we met all our obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, but the US unilaterally withdrew from the agreement [in 2018] anyway and made it impossible to continue on this path," Pezeshkian said.

On November 1, Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said Tehran could revise its nuclear doctrine in case of an existential threat to the country. According to the official, the country has the technical capability to make nuclear weapons and the supreme leader's decision is the only obstacle.

Since 2003, Iran has abode by a fatwa issued by its supreme leader, which banned the production of nuclear weapons because it runs contrary to Islam. Iranian politicians have cited it as proof of exclusively peaceful nature of the national nuclear program.