Iran doesn't intend to develop nuclear weapons BUT will pursue right to nuclear energy and research: Masoud Pezeshkian | Israel-Iran War

Israel-Iran war: Amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday (June 16) that his country has no intention to develop nuclear weapons, but it will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.

News agency Reuters reported that Pezeshkian was reiterating Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s religious edict against weapons of mass destruction.

The statement came amid the ongoing Israel-Iran war that was triggered on Friday (June 13) after Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. So far, 224 Iranians have lost their lives and over 1,200 people were injured. Meanwhile, in Israel, 17 people have been killed and 390 wounded since the conflict escalated.

"After 65 hours of aggression by the Zionist regime, 1,277 people have been injured. 224 women, men, and children have been martyred," Iran's health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour wrote on the social media platform X.

The minister said that among the killed, 90 per cent were civilians.

Moreover, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said that the intelligence chief, Mohammad Kazemi, and two other generals of the Islamic state were killed in the Israeli attacks. Iran has also lost its other top officials and nuclear scientists.

‘Whatever is necessary to achieve our dual aim’

Meanwhile, in Israel, despite 17 people dying and 390 being injured, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would continue the war. During an interview with the American news agency Fox News, Netanyahu said Israel would continue its military campaign against Iran in order to dismantle their nuclear facilities. He said Iran's nuclear facilities are a threat to Israel and its allies.

"We're geared to do whatever is necessary to achieve our dual aim, to remove ... two existential threats - the nuclear threat and the ballistic missile threat," Netanyahu said.

“We did act, to save ourselves, but also, I think, to not only protect ourselves but also protect the world from this incendiary regime. We can't have the world's most dangerous regime have the world's most dangerous weapons," he added.