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full screen Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian held a press conference in Tehran. Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP/TT
Iran’s president is leaving the door open to future international negotiations on the country’s nuclear energy program.
He demands that Iran’s morality police do not “bother” women.
Iran’s relatively newly appointed President Masoud Pezeshkian chose to address two issues with international touchpoints when he held his first international press conference on Monday.
The president, who is considered more moderate than Representative Ebrahim Raisi, said he was open to discussions on Iran’s nuclear energy program. He claimed that Iran was forced to leave the international agreement on the country’s nuclear energy program after then US President Donald Trump rejected the deal.
– I think we have said many times that we do not want this at all. We want to solve our technical and scientific needs, we don’t want nuclear weapons, Pezeshkian said in Tehran.
– We stuck to the framework that existed (in the agreement). We are committed to adhering to this framework. They tore up (the agreement), so we were forced to do something.
Pezeshkian also said he wants to use his power to ensure that Iran’s morality police will not “bother” women. The outburst came on the occasion of the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death after being detained by Iran’s morality police.
Pezeshkian was elected president after former president Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May.
The real power in Iran is found in the country’s supreme political and spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.