The Iranian president assured Wednesday that his country was seriously considering reviving negotiations for a nuclear agreement, but he wondered if Tehran could trust a possible commitment from the United States.
Posted at 2:45 p.m.
The United States had already “trampled on” a previous agreement, President Ebrahim Raisi told the podium of the United Nations General Assembly, referring to the decision of the American administration of Donald Trump, in 2018, to withdraw. withdraw from the agreement negotiated by the administration of Barack Obama.
Since the 1979 revolution, which toppled the Western-backed shah of Iran, Tehran has sought to project itself as a counterweight to US power in the region.
Its nuclear program, which Tehran says is purely energy, is seen as an extension of its challenge to a world order primarily led by the United States.
Since Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement, Tehran has gradually abandoned all the limitations that this agreement imposed on its uranium enrichment. But efforts to salvage the deal are now approaching a tipping point. European Union officials have warned that the window for a new deal is about to close.
In return for agreeing to the terms of a new nuclear deal, Iran would receive relief from economic sanctions and greater access to global financial markets and the flow of US dollars.
“There is a great and serious desire to solve all the problems” in the nuclear talks, President Raisi maintained on Wednesday, adding however: “we only want one thing: respect for commitments”.
“Can we really trust, without guarantees or assurances, that [les États-Unis] will this time live up to their commitment? “, he said.
“Mass graves” in Canada
Although he expressed a desire to reach an agreement, the Iranian president also criticized what he called an unbalanced examination of Iran’s nuclear activities, while the atomic programs of other countries remain secret – a reference to Israel, which has never confirmed or denied possessing nuclear weapons.
Israel, which vehemently opposes the Iran nuclear deal, accuses Tehran of concealing aspects of its nuclear program from UN inspectors.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons,” reiterated US President Joe Biden in his own speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, while emphasizing that the United States was ready to conclude a new agreement if Iran stepped up its commitments.
President Raisi, who was previously head of Iran’s judiciary, has also denounced the Western “double standard” when it comes to human rights. He thus accused Israel of having created the biggest prison in the world, by imposing a blockade of the Palestinian strip of Gaza.
He also cited Indigenous “mass graves” found in Canada and how the United States detains migrants and refugees at its southern border.