Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani said he listened carefully to President Obama’s speech at the United Nations earlier Tuesday and believes the two countries can create a “framework” to resolve their differences over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Commanding the attention of world leaders, Rouhani in his own remarks to the United Nations meeting Tuesday afternoon reiterated earlier pledges not to pursue nuclear weapons, saying they and other weapons of mass destruction “have no place in Iran’s security and defense doctrine” and contradict “our fundamental religious and ethical convictions.”