President Rouhani's statement - a day after an Iranian MP said his country would be safer if he held nuclear weapons • Rouhani also attacked Europeans

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Wednesday that despite recent tensions and announcements of her withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, Iran will never use nuclear weapons. At the same time, he urged the European nations not to withdraw from the nuclear agreement signed between the Powers and Iran in 2015, the same agreement from which the United States withdrew in 2018.

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"We have never searched for nuclear weapons ... with or without a nuclear agreement, we will never seek nuclear weapons," Rouhani said, adding that "European forces will be responsible for the consequences that come from violating the nuclear agreement."

Recall that Germany, France and the United Kingdom recently agreed to operate the Snap Beck mechanism to deal with the nuclear agreement violations, after Iran has announced several times in recent months that practical steps have been taken to actually violate the nuclear agreement signed.

President Rouhani with Iranian Atomic Energy chairman Ali Akbar Salhii // Photo: IP

Yesterday, an Iranian official made an unusual statement on the nuclear weapons issue by the semi-official ISNA news agency. In a speech in Carman province, MP Ahmed Hamza said his country would be safer if it held nuclear weapons.

"If we have nuclear weapons, we will be protected from the threats we face. We must put long-range missile production, those capable of carrying unconventional warheads, as our top priority," Hamza was quoted as saying.