Iran’s president says his nation’s nuclear expansion efforts are at the fault of the United States.
In his first news conference, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran has been put in a position where it is forced to advance its weapons program because the US withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal. He told a reporter from the AP,
I think, we said many times, we don’t want to do this at all. We want to solve our technical and scientific needs, we are not looking for nuclear weapons.
He added,
We adhered to the framework written in the (nuclear deal). We are still looking to maintain those frameworks. They tore them, they forced us to do something.
The US withdrew from the deal in 2018 under President Donald Trump, who said it was too favorable to Iran.
Pezeshkian’s comments come as Iran, according to the AP, has been enriching uranium to up to 60% purity, which is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.