IRANIAN PRESIDENT HASSAN Rouhani has said that Iran will not abandon its nuclear rights, including uranium enrichment.
“There are red lines that must not be crossed,” Rouhani told the conservative-dominated parliament in remarks quoted by the ISNA news agency.
“The rights of the Iranian nation and our national interests are a red line. So are nuclear rights under the framework of international regulations, which include enrichment on Iranian soil,” he said.
His remarks came a day after intensive negotiations with world powers — despite making progress — failed to produce a long-elusive deal that would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Hopes had soared after top world diplomats rushed to Geneva to join the talks, but then faded as cracks began to appear among world powers when France raised concerns reportedly over the heavy water reactor being built at Arak.
The P5+1 group in the talks — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany — suspects that Iran’s atomic ambitions are aimed at developing nuclear weapons, despite repeated denials.
At least a year away from becoming operational, the Arak facility would theoretically provide Iran with a second route to an atomic bomb by producing plutonium as a by-product.
Iran says it has no intention of extracting plutonium from Arak’s irradiated fuel, while its chief negotiator and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif did not rule out further talks in Geneva over the issue.
“The heavy water (project) is after all part of Iran’s nuclear programme, and we are supposed to discuss it,” Zarif told Iranian journalists in Geneva when asked about the Arak reactor, ISNA reported.
“We insist on our (nuclear) rights and technology but at the same time we are prepared to remove concerns of the other parties,” he said, adding that Iran “does not want anyone to think we seek weapons through enrichment or the heavy water” facility.
In Tehran, meanwhile, Rouhani pleaded for the backing of parliament as his negotiators prepare for a new round of talks scheduled in Geneva for November 20.
“If we want to succeed in these negotiations, we need the support of supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) and that of the lawmakers,” he said.
With the final say on Iran’s nuclear work, Khamenei had expressed support for its negotiators but also voiced pessimism about the possibility of a breakthrough in the talks, citing decades of hostility and ensuing mistrust.
Hardliners in Iran had also been sceptical, fearing that Zarif’s negotiating team would offer too many concessions.
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