Iran ready to resolve nuclear file with world powers

Iran is ready to end its nuclear standoff with the West, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday.

Iran's clerical establishment hopes to see an easing of US sanctions that have crippled the country's economy.

"We are ready to engage with participants of the 2015 nuclear deal. If the deal's commitments are implemented fully and in good faith, dialogue on other issues can follow," Pezeshkian said.

Then-President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and six world powers in 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran. Efforts to revive the pact have failed.

The 2015 deal, which then-President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, had capped Iran's uranium enrichment at 3.67 per cent purity and its stockpile of this material at 202.8 kg (447 pounds) - limits Tehran has since far exceeded.

For Britain, France and Germany, who remain party to the nuclear deal, there is a sense that Tehran's leadership will not change course and that a broader accord encompassing the nuclear programme and Iran's geopolitical role is unrealistic for now.

The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear programme as a veil for efforts to try to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Pezeshkian, a relatively moderate politician who took office in August promising a pragmatic foreign policy, criticized Iran's arch-foe Israel for what he called "its genocide in Gaza."

"It is imperative that the international community should immediately ... secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and bring an end to the desperate barbarism of Israel in Lebanon, before it engulfs the region and the world," he said.