Iran may accept to negotiate its ongoing enrichment of uranium to higher levels if the West recognizes it has the "right" to do so for peaceful purposes, its foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
Iran may accept to negotiate its ongoing enrichment of uranium to higher
levels if the West recognizes it has the "right" to do so for
peaceful purposes, its foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
"If Western countries [accept] that our 20 percent enrichment program is
peaceful and then ask us not to do it, the Islamic Republic of Iran will think
about their demand," Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the
official IRNA news agency.
The issue of
Iran
's 20%
enrichment program was at the forefront of Western demands seeking to curb
Iran
's
nuclear ambitions during talks on Wednesday and Thursday in
Baghdad
.
Iran rejected the demand to stop the higher level enrichment and give up its
stockpile in exchange for some inducements, put forward in a package by the
so-called P5+1 group of six world powers--Britain, China, France, Russia and
the U.S. plus Germany.
Iran
says
it needs the 20% enriched uranium to provide fuel for its medical-research
reactor in
Tehran
. The
P5+1 fear that, if processed further to a level of 90% purity or above, it
could be used to make atomic weapons.
Mehmanparast's comments were relayed slightly differently by the Mehr news
agency, which quoted him as saying: "Providing that our right to enrich
uranium to 20 percent is recognized [by the West], then we will discuss"
how to acquire the fuel for the reactor.
He added that the production of 20% enriched uranium was not
"economical... [but] we will not allow any country to violate our
[nuclear] rights."
His remarks contrasted with those of
Iran
's
nuclear chief, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, who was quoted on Sunday by media as
insisting
Tehran
had
"no reason" to suspend its purification of uranium to 20%.
"We have no reason to cede on 20%, because we produce only as much of the
20 percent fuel as we need. No more, no less," Abbasi Davani said.
Iran
insists its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.
It has railed against Western sanctions hitting its vital oil and financial
sectors that aim to force it to curb its activities as unfair and illegal,
though it claims they are ineffective.
Those sanctions are set to tighten further on July 1, when a European Union
embargo on Iranian oil comes fully into effect. By then,
U.S.
sanctions targeting
Iran
's
central bank will also be fully implemented.
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