Iran's president insists Tehran wants to negotiate over its nuclear program

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's new reformist president insisted Monday that Tehran didn't want to enrich uranium at near-weapons grade levels but had been forced to by the U.S. withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers.

The comments by President Masoud Pezeshkian, in response to a question by The Associated Press at his first news conference, underlines a campaign promise he made to try to see international sanctions on the Islamic Republic lifted. However, it remains unclear just how much room for negotiation Pezeshkian will have — and just who will be in the White House come next year.

“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," Pezeshkian said. “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.”

He added: “If they don’t continue, we will not continue,”

Pezeshkian's comments came as Iran enriches uranium up to 60% purity, which is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran long has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, but Western nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had a military nuclear program up until 2003.

Iran's supreme leader, the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has opened the door to possible negotiations by earlier telling its civilian government there was “no harm” in engaging with its “enemy.” There have been indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. in recent years mediated by Oman and Qatar, two of Washington's Middle East interlocutors when it comes to Iran.

Pezeshkian’s new foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, also was deeply involved in negotiating the 2015 deal.

Pezeshkian, asked if he'd meet or talk with U.S. President Joe Biden or whoever wins the November election, said that Washington should return to the nuclear deal first, then “we will talk, there is no dispute”.

“They have blocked all roads to us”, Pezeshkian said. “They should show that they have no enmity towards us. We have no enmity toward them.”

Pezeshkian urged the U.S. not to threaten Iran with its regional military bases or impose sanctions on the country.

“Otherwise, we are a brother with them," he said.

Meanwhile, tensions between Iran and Israel have hit a new high during the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Tehran launched an unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel in April. A shadow war between the two countries over the years reached a climax with Israel’s apparent attack on an Iranian consular building in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and others.

The July assassination in Tehran of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, suspected to have been carried out by Israel, also prompted Iran to threaten to retaliate against Israel.

Pezeshkian, meanwhile, said that Iran wouldn't give up its ballistic missile arsenal “unless all are disarmed in our region.” He made a point to say that Israel should disarm after earlier criticizing its conduct in the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"We need military power for the security of our people and country," he said. “We will not lose our defense power unless all are disarmed in our region. If America also respects our rights, we have no dispute. Do not sanction or threaten us, we will not be threatened.”