Iran's new reformist president is insisting that Tehran didn't want to enrich uranium at near-weapons grade levels but had been forced by the U.S. withdrawal from its nuclear deal with world powers.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile programme as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran's arch-foe Israel is able to "drop missiles on Gaza every day".

Iran’s reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has signalled a renewed openness to resuming nuclear negotiations with western nations and denied that his country had supplied ballistic missiles to Russia since he took office more than six weeks ago.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that his government had not transferred any weapons to Russia since it took office in August, after Western powers accused Tehran of delivering ballistic missiles to Moscow in.