TEHRAN, 23 September 2021, (TON):  Iran’s new ultraconservative president voiced support for renewed nuclear negotiations in his international debut even as he hailed what he termed the decline of US hegemony.

President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who succeeded a government that sought better relations with the West, called on the United States to fulfill its promises to end sanctions under the 2015 nuclear accord.

Raisi said in a recorded speech to the UN General Assembly “the Islamic Republic considers useful talks whose ultimate outcome is the lifting of all oppressive sanctions.”

Raisi said “he repeated the clerical state’s stance that nuclear weapons are religiously prohibited, a position that has been met with skepticism notably by Israel, which has carried out a sabotage campaign to delay Iran’s nuclear work. Nuclear weapons “have no place in our defense doctrine and deterrence policy.”

President Joe Biden, appearing in person in his own maiden UN speech, earlier said that the United States was ready to return to the nuclear accord from which his predecessor Donald Trump bolted.