Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sat down for an exclusive interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier and got hit with the question everyone wanted answered: does Iran want a nuclear bomb. Baier asked it point-blank, no cushioning, and Pezeshkian's answer came back fast and firm, insisting twice that the answer was absolutely not. He leaned on religious authority to back up the denial, invoking past declarations from Iran's late supreme leader that building weapons of mass destruction is both unholy and illegal under Iranian religious law. When Baier pushed further and asked why Iran was enriching uranium to 60 percent, far beyond what civilian power plants typically require, Pezeshkian brushed off the concern, claiming diluting that material back down would be no big deal and offering to let international inspectors verify Iran's program under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The interview came just a day after Pezeshkian addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and it landed in the middle of a fragile pause in fighting between the United States and Iran following a war that began earlier this year. Pezeshkian used much of the conversation to place blame on Washington, arguing that Iran never wanted war and has been forced into defending itself against strikes and sanctions it did not provoke. He also denied that Iran had shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil corridor, insisting the waterway remained open despite months of tension. Even with the sharp rhetoric, Pezeshkian signaled he was open to a new deal with Washington within international legal frameworks, though he made clear Tehran was in no rush and would wait out the situation on its own terms if talks stalled.