Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has insisted his country is not seeking a nuclear weapon while acknowledging “great sorrow” over the authorities’ crackdown on protesters. Speaking at rallies marking the 1979 revolution, he sought to project national unity after demonstrations that shook the regime.
Pezeshkian said Iran was willing to negotiate on its nuclear programme and was “ready for any kind of verification” to prove it is not building nuclear weapons. However, the UN nuclear watchdog has been unable for months to inspect Iran’s nuclear stockpile. He blamed “the high wall of mistrust” created by the US and Europe for hindering talks.
Although he did not directly address the bloodshed, Pezeshkian said: “We are ashamed before the people. We are obliged to serve all those who were harmed in this process.” He spurned calls from reformist leaders to speak out against the mass arrest of their leadership, with lawyers saying detainees were being kept in solitary confinement.
Meanwhile, Iranian diplomats sought to head off Israeli efforts to toughen US negotiating stance ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Donald Trump. Iran is ready to discuss reducing uranium enrichment but has rejected including its ballistic missile programme in talks, which Israel insists must be addressed. Trump has suggested Iran’s nuclear missiles must be part of any agreement.
