Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile programme as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran's arch-foe Israel is able to "drop missiles on Gaza every day".

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian provided an update on the country's nuclear program this week amid heightened tensions in the Middle East. On Monday, Pezeshkian held a press conference where he was asked about Iran's nuclear program and said that Tehran does not seek to enrich uranium to near-weapons grade levels but claimed it was compelled to do so after the United States withdrew from the nuclear deal with world powers.

Iran’s new reformist president is insisting that Tehran didn’t want to enrich uranium at near-weapons grade levels but had been forced by the U.S. withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers

Iran’s reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has signalled a renewed openness to resuming nuclear negotiations with western nations and denied that his country had supplied ballistic missiles to Russia since he took office more than six weeks ago.