Iran’s New Atomic Pitch: International Arms Sales

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) —
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks at a public gathering in the city of Yazd, Iran, Sunday. (Office of the Iranian Presidency via AP)

Iran’s president is making a new pitch to hard-liners to stay in the country’s unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers: the chance to buy and sell weapons abroad next year.

President Hassan Rouhani made the comments in a speech Monday in Rafsanjan in Iran’s southwest Kerman province.

Rouhani said, “If we save the nuclear deal, Iran’s arms embargo will be lifted and we can buy weapons or sell our weapons to the world. This is one of the deal’s significant impacts.”

The end of the weapons embargo, imposed by the United Nations, already worries the Trump administration.

All this comes a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the deal. In the time since, Iran has begun breaking limits imposed by the deal to pressure Europe.

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