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By Matthew Impelli
Life & Trends Reporter
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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian provided an update on the country's nuclear program this week amid heightened tensions in the Middle East.
On Monday, Pezeshkian held a press conference where he was asked about Iran's nuclear program and said that Tehran does not seek to enrich uranium to near-weapons grade levels but claimed it was compelled to do so after the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal with world powers.
"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."
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"If they don't continue, we will not continue," Pezeshkian added.
Pezeshkian's remarks come as Iran continues to enrich uranium to 60 percent purity, just a short technical step from the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade material. While Iran has consistently claimed its nuclear program is peaceful, Western nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency maintain that Iran operated a military nuclear program until 2003.
Iran's 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has signaled openness to possible negotiations, previously telling the civilian government there was "no harm" in engaging with its "enemy." In recent years, indirect talks between Iran and the U.S. have been mediated by Oman and Qatar, two of Washington's key Middle East intermediaries on Iran-related issues.
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Tensions between Iran and Israel have escalated during the war in Gaza. In April, Tehran launched an unprecedented drone and missile strike on Israel. The long-standing shadow war between the two nations peaked when Israel allegedly targeted an Iranian consular building in Syria, killing two Iranian generals and several others.
Earlier this year, Iran vowed revenge against Israel following the killing of Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh.
"The response to an assassination will indeed be special operations—harder and intended to instill deep regret in the perpetrator," the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said in a statement shared with Newsweek and published on X, formerly Twitter.
During the press conference this week, Pezeshkian stated that Iran would not relinquish its ballistic missile arsenal "unless all are disarmed in our region," specifically calling for Israel to disarm. He also criticized Israel's actions in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.
This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
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