United Nations: Iran s new ultraconservative president voiced support Tuesday in his international debut for reviving a nuclear accord even as he berated the United States, hailing what he described as its failures.
President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who succeeded a government that sought better relations with the West, called on the United States to fulfill its promises to end sanctions under the 2015 nuclear accord.
“The Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions,” Raisi said in a recorded speech to the UN General Assembly.
Indirect talks brokered by the European Union have been on hiatus since June after months of negotiations with the previous government failed to secure a path forward.
Raisi repeated the clerical state s stance that nuclear weapons are religiously prohibited, a position that has been met with skepticism notably by Israel, which has carried out a sabotage campaign to delay Iran s nuclear work. Nuclear weapons “have no place in our defense doctrine and deterrence policy,” Raisi said.
Raisi is notorious among human rights advocates for his role as a judge during mass executions in 1988 when the Islamic republic was solidifying control, with some activists encouraging the West to shun him.
But Western powers, as well as China and Russia, say they see the value in restricting Iran s nuclear program peacefully under the 2015 agreement, from which US President Joe Biden s predecessor Donald Trump withdrew the United States.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he will meet Tuesday at the United Nations with Iran s new foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, and push him to restart the talks in Vienna “soon.”
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, which remains in the nuclear accord, said it was urgent to resume negotiations, amid Western concerns that Iran could advance nuclear work. AFP
