Iran’s president says Tehran not after nukes, slams propaganda claiming otherwise

Tehran, Oct 16 (IANS) Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Friday reiterated that his country does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, dismissing anti-Tehran propaganda claiming otherwise as a “lie.”

Pezeshkian made the remarks during a meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze on the sidelines of the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, according to a statement on his office’s website.

“Iran does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, and we consider the destructive propaganda against our country as a lie,” he said, citing the clear positions of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei regarding the prohibition of developing nuclear weapons, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Pezeshkian noted Iran has always been ready for dialogue, saying, “They (the United States) think they can force us to surrender, but we will not acquiesce to coercion.”

He said the US sanctions against Iran fail to comply with humanitarian frameworks, describing recent US-Israeli attacks on Iran as “unjustifiable and inhumane.”

Kobakhidze, for his part, underlined that his country rejects any form of foreign interference in states’ internal affairs.

In a separate meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Pezeshkian said that the United States must recognize that Iran will not surrender and will continue its relations with the world with power, relying on its people and coordinating with its neighbors, according to his office’s website.

He added that the United States and its sanctions have created problems for Iran and the entire world, warning that should Washington seek to continue the same path, the situation would worsen for the entire world.

Pezeshkian called on Washington to engage in dialogue based on logic rather than using force.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has said the war with Iran will end very soon, predicting a rapid fall in global energy prices once the conflict is over and insisting that Tehran will not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons.

Speaking to reporters before departing Arizona for an election rally in Montana, Trump linked the expected end of the conflict to lower oil prices and improvements in the American economy.

“And Iran will end very shortly. It’s gonna be over very shortly, and your energy prices will fall very rapidly, very fast,” Trump said.

–IANS

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