Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Insists on Right to Enrich Uranium
WASHINGTON — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged to prove that his country’s nuclear program is peaceful but insisted on Iran’s right to enrich uranium.
Rouhani, elected this summer and speaking Tuesday for the first time as president to the U.N. General Assembly, said the Iranian ethos and Muslim precepts demanded that “we remove all concerns about Iran’s nuclear program,” and he pledged to “remove mutual uncertainties with full transparency.”
However, he also said that this was only possible if Iran’s right to continue uranium enrichment for what he said were peaceful purposes is guaranteed.
Israel insists that any diplomatic solution to tensions with Iran include the full removal of its capacity for enrichment. The United States and other Western nations reportedly are ready to accommodate a degree of enrichment well short of levels needed for weaponization.
Rouhani did not directly respond to President Obama’s offer made earlier in the day to engage directly on the issue, although he noted it and said he believed in “constructive engagement with other countries.”
He called on Washington to “refrain from following the shortsighted interests of war-mongering pressure groups.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO