Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi defended his country’s nuclear activities as legal and renewed strong criticism against the American sanctions regime that has battered the Iranian economy.
“We are not seeking a nuclear bomb, and it has no place in our defense strategy,” Raisi declared in a speech at Russia’s lower parliament Jan. 20, as he refenced a 2003 fatwa, or religious decree, issued by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in prohibition of atomic weapons.
