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Middle East conflict

Iran has no intention to develop nuclear weapons, ready to return to JCPOA – president

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that there is no place for nuclear weapons in Iran’s military doctrine

DUBAI, September 24. /TASS/. Iran does not aspire to develop nuclear weapons and is ready to return to its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Tehran’s nuclear program, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said during a roundtable with journalists in New York.

"We are fully ready to return to our obligations under the agreement but it should not be the case where the United States and European countries, unwilling to fulfill their obligations, in turn, ask us to return to ours," ISNA quoted him as saying. The president stressed that there is no place for nuclear weapons in Iran’s military doctrine. "While some countries were falsely accusing us of attempting to develop nuclear arms, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was conducting the most thorough observation in Iran," he stressed.

Iran's nuclear deal

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany struck a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 to address the crisis over its nuclear program. Then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018, while incumbent President Biden has repeatedly signaled his willingness to bring the US back into the nuclear deal.

Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, the US and France have been in talks with Iran in Vienna since April 2021, seeking to restore the JCPOA in its original form. In November 2022, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said the latest round of talks with Iranian officials ended in the Austrian capital without achieving any specific results.

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Middle East conflict

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