Reza Najafi, who serves as Tehran\u2019s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, rejected the US statement as \u201cbaseless and politically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is indefensible that the United States, as the only state ever to have used nuclear weapons, and the one that continues to expand and modernize its nuclear arsenal\u2026 seeks to position itself as an arbitrator of compliance,\u201d he told the meeting.<\/p>\n
\t The nuclear issue has been at the heart of the two-month war between Iran and the United States and Israel, with US President Donald Trump reiterating on Sunday that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n Iran has long demanded Washington acknowledge its right to enrich uranium, which Tehran says it only seeks for peaceful purposes, but which Western powers say could be used to make nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n Iran has insisted it does not seek nuclear weapons. But the IAEA and the US intelligence community separately assessed that Tehran had a nuclear weapons development program that it shuttered in 2003.<\/p>\n On Monday, Iranian sources disclosed Tehran\u2019s latest proposal to end the conflict, which would set aside discussion of Tehran\u2019s nuclear program until the war is ended and disputes over shipping from the Gulf are resolved.<\/p>\n Trump and his top national security aides met to discuss the conflict on Monday and White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters \u201cthe president\u2019s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tIran\u2019s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency Reza Najafi arrives to attend the IAEA\u2019s Board of Governors meeting at the agency\u2019s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, on November 19, 2025. (Joe Klamar \/ AFP)<\/p>\n
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