Iran won’t cede ‘one iota’ on nuclear program, Rouhani says

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani said Tuesday that his country “will not give up one iota” of its nuclear program.

Rouhani told clerics that his government wouldn’t cede “its absolute right” on what he called “the nuclear issue,” AFP reported, quoting the semi-state run Mehr news agency in Iran.

Also Tuesday, Rouhani said he could reach out to world leaders about resuming nuclear talks during the UN General Assembly later this month in New York.

The report, by the official IRNA news agency, quoted the president as saying that he could seek dialogue to try to get the negotiations back on track. The report gave no further details.

Talks between Iran and world powers were last held in April amid deadlock over Western efforts to rein in Tehran’s controversial nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is scheduled to meet the EU’s Catherine Ashton later this month, as the two sides look to restart talks about Iran’s nuclear program.

For years Israel, the US and other Western countries have charged that Tehran’s nuclear program has military purposes, and the international community has imposed harsh sanctions against Iran. The Islamic republic claims it only seeks reactors for energy and medical applications.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.