UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that his country does not seek nuclear weapons.

"I hereby declare once more, before this assembly, that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb," he told the General Debate of the General Assembly. "We do not seek nuclear weapons. This is our belief based on the edict issued by the Supreme Leader and by religious authorities. Therefore, we never sought weapons of mass destruction, nor will we ever seek them."

Pezeshkian said the attempts by the three European countries of Britain, France and Germany, which are parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, to reinstate UN sanctions against Iran are illegitimate.

The three countries, known as the E3, claimed that they triggered the snapback mechanism provided for in the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), by notifying the Security Council of Tehran's "non-performance" on Aug. 28.

However, the legality of the E3 move has been questioned as it skipped the Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM) provided for in the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, which endorsed the deal.

Under the JCPOA and Resolution 2231, the DRM has 35 days to resolve the disagreement. A snapback can be triggered only after the DRM fails to resolve the issue. ■