Iran will never seek nuclear weapons, president tells UN

Iran's president repeated Wednesday that his country is not seeking nuclear weapons, after military strikes by Israel and the United States earlier this year, and impending sanctions triggered by European powers.

"I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb," President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly.

"The one disturbing peace and stability in the region is Israel, but Iran is the one that gets punished," he said.

Iran has long contended that it is not seeking nuclear weapons, pointing to an edict by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and US intelligence has not concluded that the country has decided to build a nuclear weapon.

But Israel, the United States and European countries ha