Iran will not stop enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, despite a request from the UN nuclear agency, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said in remarks published on Tuesday.
Last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency, a UN watchdog, imposed a deadline of October 31 for Iran to prove that its nuclear programme is peaceful. The resolution also urged Iran ”to suspend all further uranium enrichment-related activities.”
Iran protested the deadline as driven by politics, but it said it would continue to cooperate with the IAEA.
”We are standing resolutely and will not allow anybody to deprive us of our legitimate right to make peaceful use of nuclear energy, especially uranium enrichment to provide fuel for nuclear plants,” Kharrazi said.
The minister was addressing a Monday night meeting of the preachers who deliver Friday prayer sermons in mosques across Iran.
The agency published his comments on Tuesday.
Iran insists its nuclear programme is entirely for the generation of energy, particularly after its oil wells run dry. It says its uranium enrichment is to produce fuel to power nuclear reactors.
The United States, however, strongly suspects Iran has a programme to produce nuclear weapons.
In recent weeks, Iran has twice had to acknowledge that particles of uranium, enriched to weapons-grade level, have been found in different parts of the country. Iran said the particles came from contaminated equipment that it imported from another country, which it did not name.
Further, Kharrazi rejected calls by hard-line elements in the hierarchy for Iran to quit the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, which prohibits Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
”We are committed to the Non-proliferation Treaty, and withdrawing from the treaty is not on our agenda … unless Iran is deprived of all its rights,” Kharrazi said.
IAEA officials held talks in Tehran last week.
The IAEA is due to hold a board meeting in November. If it rules that Iran has violated the treaty, it is likely to refer the matter to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions on Iran. – Sapa-AP