Sticking to a hard-line position following his landslide victory in last week’s election, Iran’s president-elect Ebrahim Raisi on Monday said he wouldn’t meet with President Joe Biden nor negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support of regional militias.
Raisi also described himself as a 'defender of human rights' when asked about his involvement in the 1988 mass execution of some 5,000 people.
It marked the first time he’s been put on the spot on live television over that dark moment in Iranian history at the end of the Iran-Iraq war.
The US, under Donald Trump, left the the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018 and both it and Iran have undertaken weeks of indirect talks to try to find a way back.
But Raisi said Iran’s foreign policy will be wider than the deal.