Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that Iran will respond in the coming days to the recent US proposal in indirect nuclear talks, which he said contains “many ambiguities.”
Araghchi made the remarks at a signing ceremony for his book in Beirut, addressing the nuclear talks, which have stalled over the past weeks over the US insistence on depriving Iran of the right to enrich uranium.
“We will provide an appropriate and considered response in the coming days, based on our principled positions and with the interests of the Iranian people in mind,” he said.
The minister reiterated that uranium enrichment is “a red line” for Iran and that Iran does not seek anyone’s permission to continue uranium enrichment.
“Continuing enrichment on Iranian soil is our red line, and this is an undeniable fact that now seems to be accepted by all countries. Enrichment has become a matter of national pride and a source of honor for Iranians. This is a scientific achievement that Iranian scientists have attained through their efforts and knowledge; it is not an imported thing that can be easily ignored.”
The minister stressed that Iranians have made many sacrifices to achieve this national pride and have endured more than 20 years of severe US sanctions because of this achievement by their scientists.
“Some of our nuclear scientists were assassinated by foreign agents and became martyrs. The blood of these scientists has been shed for this enrichment industry,” he said, referring to the assassination of several Iranian scientists in the early 2010s by the Israeli regime.
The minister also said that more than one million Iranians need medicines produced by the Tehran research reactor, so continuing enrichment in Iran is a necessity.
Nevertheless, he said, Iran is ready to take steps toward building confidence that this enrichment does not lead to the production of nuclear weapons.
Iran and the US have held five rounds of such diplomatic process with Omani mediation since April.
A previous deal involving the Islamic Republic and other countries set out a 3.6-percent enrichment cap.
The US, however, left the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2018, and restored all the illegal and unilateral sanctions that it had lifted. The Islamic Republic exercised “strategic patience” for a year, but eventually began taking a series of countermeasures that increased the country’s enrichment levels.
Senior American officials such as regional envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have insisted on “zero-level” enrichment on the part of the Islamic Republic.
