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US Senator Tom Cotton said on Wednesday that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s assertion during his speech at the UNGA that Tehran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb was “a lie.”
“President Trump and our military struck a major blow against Iran’s nuclear program back in June. We can never allow this regime to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Cotton wrote on X.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday that Iran is in a tough position but that Washington is carrying on a dialogue with its Mideast nemesis as new sanctions loom.
"With regard to Iran, we're talking to them. And why wouldn't we? We talk to everybody, as well we should. That's the job. Our job is to solve things diplomatically," Witkoff told the Concordia conference in New York on Wednesday.
"I would say with Iran that they're in a tough position. Now, snapbacks are going to ensue in what, two days or three days, something like that. And I think that we have no desire to hurt them," he added, referring to so-called "snapback" sanctions triggered by European states due for Sept. 28.
"I think we have a desire, however, to either realize a permanent solution and negotiate around snapbacks, and if we can't, then snapbacks will be what they are. They're the right medicine for what's happening."
A senior Iranian lawmaker dismissed remarks by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, who earlier in the day said Washington was carrying on a dialogue with Tehran.
“Steve Witkoff’s remarks about ongoing US negotiations with Iran are a lie,” Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Wednesday.
Republican Senator John Cornyn called on European allies to support and intensify sanctions against Iran, calling it a leading state sponsor of terrorism and an aggressor.
The United Kingdom, France and Germany last month triggered the so-called "snapback" of international sanctions on Tehran which are set to take effect on September 28.
"We need our European allies to step up and agree that these sanctions are critical," Cornyn told Iran International.
"Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism. Thank goodness President Trump disrupted their nuclear weapons program. But their attitude and conduct remain unchanged, and these sanctions are entirely justified," the Texas senator said.
Cornyn’s push follows a letter led by Senator Jim Risch and signed by 50 Senate Republicans last week. The letter praised the UK, France, and Germany for re-activating the UN sanctions on Iran and urged sustained pressure until Tehran’s nuclear program is fully dismantled.
The move reflects growing United States concerns over Iran’s nuclear progress and its support for proxy groups across the region.
At the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the US of betraying trust, particularly after its 2018 withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear deal, and stressed Iran’s willingness to pursue diplomacy to resolve the crisis.
Pezeshkian denied that Iran has ever sought nuclear weapons, despite the US and Israeli assertions in June that Tehran was racing toward a bomb.
"I hereby declare once more that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb," Pezeshkian said.
Addressing European powers, Pezeshkian accused Germany, Britain, and France of acting in bad faith by reinstating UN sanctions.
"The three European states, having failed through a decade of bad faith and by supporting military aggression to subdue the proud people of Iran, at the behest of the United States, sought to reinstate terminated UN Security Council resolutions through pressure, coercion, and blatant abuse," the Iranian president said.
French President Emmanuel Macron also met with Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the UN meeting, warning that time was running out. "An agreement remains possible — only hours left; it is up to Iran," Macron posted on X.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said that in a meeting on Wednesday with the Chinese and Russian ambassadors to the UN, they agreed on coordinated action against what he called unlawful attempts by Britain, France, and Germany to reinstate sanctions on Tehran.
