Iran’s foreign minister said Sunday that Tehran is not any longer enriching uranium at any site within the country, attempting to signal to the West that it stays open to potential negotiations over its atomic program.
Answering a matter from an Associated Press journalist visiting Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered probably the most direct response yet from the Iranian government regarding its nuclear program following Israel and the US’ bombing of its enrichment sites in June during a 12-day war.
“There is no such thing as a undeclared nuclear enrichment in Iran. All of our facilities are under the safeguards and monitoring” of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Araghchi said. “There is no such thing as a enrichment straight away because our facilities — our enrichment facilities — have been attacked.”
Iran says it’s threatened over accessing bombed sites
Asked what it will take for Iran to proceed negotiations with the U.S. and others, Araghchi said Iran’s message on its nuclear program stays “clear.”
“Iran’s right for enrichment, for peaceful use of nuclear technology, including enrichment, is undeniable,” the foreign minister continued. “We’ve this right, and we proceed to exercise that, and we hope that the international community, including the US, recognize our rights and understand that that is an inalienable right of Iran. And we might never quit our rights.”
Iran’s government issued a three-day visa for the AP reporter to attend a summit alongside journalists from major British outlets and other media.
Mohammad Eslami, the pinnacle of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, also attended the summit and told the gathering that Tehran had been threatened over potentially accessing the bombed enrichment sites. Satellite pictures analyzed by the AP because the attack show that Iran has not done any major work on the sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.
“Our security situation hasn’t yet modified. When you watch the news, you see that every single day we’re being threatened with one other attack,” Eslami said. “Day-after-day we’re told when you touch anything, you’ll be attacked.”
Iran had been enriching uranium as much as 60% purity — a brief, technical step from weapons-grade levels — after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear take care of world powers in 2018. Tehran long has maintained its atomic program is peaceful, though the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.
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European nations also pushed through a measure to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran over the nuclear program in September.
The IAEA’s Board of Governors is ready to fulfill this week and will vote on a brand new resolution targeting Iran over its failure to cooperate fully with the agency.
But Araghchi left open the opportunity of further negotiations with the U.S. should Washington’s demands change.
He told journalists on the summit that the U.S. administration’s approach doesn’t suggest they’re ready for “equal, fair negotiations to achieve mutual interests.”
“What we now have seen from the Americans to date has actually been an effort to dictate their demands, that are maximalist and excessive. We see no probability for dialogue within the face of such demands.”
Iran summit decries ‘aggression’
Iran’s Institute for Political and International Studies, affiliated with the country’s Foreign Ministry, hosted the summit. Titled “International Law Under Assault: Aggression and Self-Defense,” the conference included papers by Iranian political analysts offering Tehran’s view of the 12-day war in June, many seizing on comments from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz praising Israel for having done the “dirty work” in launching its attack.
“Iran’s defensive response was remarkable, inspiring, historic and above all, pure,” wrote Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour, a world relations professor. “How can one possibly compare Israel’s dirty deeds to the noble and clean actions of the Iranian nation?”
Images of kids killed by Israel in the course of the war lined the walkway outside the summit, held contained in the Martyr General Qassem Soleimani Constructing, named for the Revolutionary Guard expeditionary leader killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020.
But Iran finds itself in a difficult moment after the war. Israel decimated the country’s air defense systems, potentially leaving the door open to further airstrikes as tensions remain high over the nuclear program.
Meanwhile, economic pressures and societal change proceed to challenge Iran’s Shiite theocracy, which to date has held off on making decisions about whether to implement its mandatory hijab laws or raise the value of government-subsidized gasoline, each of which have sparked nationwide protests up to now.
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