Iran does not seek nuclear weapons, president says

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian delivered a message for Persian New Year on Friday in which he stated that his country does not want war with its neighbours or to acquire nuclear weapons, state media have reported.

“Our difficulties are the result of the interference of enemies,” he said, addressing Iran's “dear neighbours” as “our brothers” and expressing his intention to “resolve all these differences with you”.

He added that Iran wants “to establish peace and stability in the region” and proposed “a regional security structure be formed from Islamic countries” without “the presence of outsiders in the region”.

Iran has a religious fatwa forbidding the development of nuclear weapons, and, although it retains a supply of enriched uranium to enable the production of weapons if threatened, US intelligence officials have stated that there has been “no effort” to develop these capabilities.