French President François Hollande says the Islamic Republic of Iran is entitled to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Tehran “clearly has the right to pursue its civilian program,” Hollande said in his address to the 68th annual session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.

The French president also called on Iran to show “concrete gestures” to help resolve the issues regarding its nuclear energy program.

He hailed the position taken by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Iran's nuclear energy program as “a glimmer of hope” and called for more practical measures on behalf of Tehran.

Rouhani and Hollande are scheduled to meet in New York later in the day to mainly discuss the crisis in Syria and Iran's nuclear energy program.

Hollande will be the first French president to meet with an Iranian president since 2005, when France’s then president, Jacques Chirac, met his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Khatami, in Paris.

The United States, Israel and some of their allies falsely claim that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with the US and the European Union using the unfounded allegation as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on Iran.

Tehran strongly rejects the claim against its nuclear energy program, maintaining that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.


HK