DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s president-elect says he’s not willing to negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of regional militias.
Ebrahim Raisi made the comment at a news conference Monday after winning Iran’s election Friday in a landslide.
The US, now hoping to get Iran back into its 2015 nuclear deal, had hoped to negotiate over other issues as well.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s president-elect says he’s not willing to meet President Joe Biden.
Ebrahim Raisi, when asked about possibly meeting Biden, simply said: “No.”
Raisi’s moderate competitor in the recent election, Abdolnasser Hemmati, said he’d be willing to potentially meet Biden.
Meanwhile, Raisi called himself “a defender of human rights” after being asked directly about his involvement in the 1988 mass executions of some 5,000 people. Raisi was part of a so-called “death panel” that sentenced political prisoners to death at the end of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
Raisi made the comments Monday in a news conference with journalists, his first since winning Friday’s election in a landslide.
