Iran said on Thursday it was determined to produce nuclear fuel on its territory in defiance of international calls to halt the work, and accused the United States of trying to prevent a negotiated solution to its dispute with the West.
”Based on law, Iran has planned to produce 20 000MW of nuclear electricity in the next 20 years and needs to produce nuclear fuel inside the country for those reactors,” chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said in a statement, read out on state television.
He said Iran is still reviewing nuclear proposals backed by six nations and wanted talks to solve the dispute. But he said the US ”has been trying to create obstacles in the way of talks and a diplomatic solution to this issue”.
”Iran has no other way than to review its nuclear policies if confrontation is chosen, instead of talks,” he said.
Iranian officials have previously threatened, if pushed, to review cooperation with the United Nations atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the country’s adherence to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The US, China, Russia, Britain and France — the five permanent members of the Security Council — plus Germany have proposed that Iran halt nuclear enrichment in return for economic and diplomatic incentives.
Security Council members are currently engaged in informal talks in New York on how to make legally binding demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment and stop work on a reactor that can produce plutonium.
Iran has said it will reply to the package by August 22, defying international calls for a swifter response. Iran’s nuclear file has now been referred back to the UN Security Council after Tehran took too long to reply to the offer.
Iran has given no indication it will halt enrichment, a process the West says Tehran wants to master so it can build bombs, but which Iran insists it will only use to make fuel for nuclear power plants. — Reuters