TEHRAN, Iran: Iran reiterated on Saturday that any new nuclear deal must respect its right under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, rejecting US demands for a halt to enrichment activities.
“I would like to emphasise that in any negotiated solution, the rights of the Iranian people on the nuclear issue, including the right to enrichment, must be respected,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told diplomats in Tehran.
“We will not have any agreement in which enrichment is not included,” Araghchi was quoted by AFP as saying.
The Foreign Minister said that Iran plans to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog despite restrictions imposed by its parliament. He stressed that access to its bombed nuclear sites posed security and safety issues.
The new law stipulates that any future inspection of Iran’s nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) needs approval by the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security body.
“The risk of spreading radioactive materials and the risk of exploding leftover munitions … are serious,” state media cited Araqchi as saying.
“For us, IAEA inspectors approaching nuclear sites has both a security aspect … and the safety of the inspectors themselves is a matter that must be examined.”
While Iran’s cooperation with the nuclear watchdog has not stopped, it will take a new form and will be guided and managed through the Supreme National Security Council, Araqchi told Tehran-based diplomats.
Earlier, Iran’s president said the UN nuclear watchdog should drop its “double standards” if Tehran is to resume cooperation with it over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.
President Masoud Pezeshkian last week enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, and the IAEA said it had pulled its last remaining inspectors out of Iran.
Relations between Iran and the IAEA have worsened since the United States and Israel bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June, saying they wanted to prevent Tehran from developing an atomic weapon.
Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only and denies seeking atomic weapons.
