TEHRAN – The Iranian Foreign Minister indicated on Sunday that Tehran is no longer enriching uranium anywhere in the country, a signal to the West that it is still open to doing so. Possible negotiations regarding its nuclear program.
Upon receiving a question from a journalist visiting Iran, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghji Iran offered the most direct response by the Iranian government to date regarding its nuclear program following the Israeli and US bombing of enrichment sites last June.
Araqchi said, “There is no undeclared nuclear enrichment in Iran. All of our facilities are subject to safeguards and monitoring” by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“There is no enrichment at this time because our facilities – our enrichment facilities – have been attacked.”
Asked what it would take for Iran to continue negotiations with the United States and others, Araqchi responded that Tehran’s message about its nuclear program remains “clear.”
The Foreign Minister continued: “Iran’s right to enrichment and the peaceful use of nuclear technology, including enrichment, cannot be denied.”
He added: “We have this right and we continue to exercise it, and we hope that the international community, including the United States, will recognize our rights and understand that this is Iran’s inalienable right and we will never give up our rights.”
The Iranian government has issued three-day visas to two other journalists from leading British and other media outlets to attend a meeting in Tehran.
Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, also attended the event, and told attendees that Tehran was threatened by possible access to enrichment sites that had been bombed.
Satellite images analyzed since the attack show that Iran has not carried out any major work at the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz sites.
“Our security situation has not changed yet,” Al-Islami said. “If you watch the news, you will see that we are threatened with another attack every day.”
“They tell us every day that if you touch something, you will be attacked.”
Iran was enriching uranium Purity up to 60% – A short technical step from weapons manufacturing levels – after US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the nuclear agreement signed in 2015.
Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, despite the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency They say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.
European countries also pushed for the re-imposition of UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in September.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors is scheduled to meet this week and may vote on a new resolution targeting Iran over its failure to fully cooperate with the agency.
But Araqchi left the door open to the possibility of further negotiations with the United States if Washington’s demands change.
He pointed out that the US administration’s approach does not suggest that it is ready for “fair and equal negotiations to achieve common interests.”
He added, “What we have seen from the Americans so far is in fact an attempt to dictate their extremist and excessive demands. We do not see the possibility of dialogue in the face of such demands.”
The conference was organized by the Iranian Institute for Political and International Studies of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “International Law Under Assault: Aggression and Self-Defense,” Which included presentations by Iranian political analysts who presented Tehran’s perspective on the 12-day war in June.
Many of these analyzes were based on statements by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who praised Israel for doing the “dirty work” in launching the attack.
“Iran’s defensive response was brilliant, inspiring, historic and, above all, pure,” he wrote. Muhammad Kazem SajjadpourProfessor of International Relations.
He asked: “How can Israel’s heinous actions compare to the noble and clean actions of the Iranian nation?”
Pictures of children killed by Israel during the war were placed in the hallway outside the summit held in the building of the martyr General Qassem Soleimani, named after the commander of the Revolutionary Guard commandos who was killed by an American drone in 2020.
But Iran is going through a difficult moment after the war.
Israel has destroyed the country’s air defense systems, potentially leaving the door open for more air strikes at a time when tensions over Tehran’s nuclear program remain high.
At the same time, Economic pressures and social change They remain a challenge to Iran’s Shiite theocracy, which has so far avoided making decisions on whether to impose mandatory hijab laws or raise the price of government-subsidized gasoline, both of which have sparked nationwide protests in the past.
Reuters, Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse
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