Tehran ‘won’t give up’ uranium enrichment
TEHRAN: President Hassan Rowhani insisted Wednesday that Iran would not abandon its enrichment of uranium, after US senators called for it to be denied any such right under a long-term nuclear deal.
“The world has admitted that Iran is, and will be, among the countries which have nuclear technology, including enrichment, and there is no doubt about this for anyone,” state media quoted Rowhani as telling a cabinet meeting.
His comment came after an overwhelming majority of US senators signed a bipartisan letter to President Barack Obama on Tuesday urging him to reject Iran’s claim to the right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes in talks under way with the major powers.
“We believe that Iran has no inherent right to enrichment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” the letter signed by 83 of the 100 members of the US Senate said.
Rowhani said Iran was ready to be more transparent about its nuclear program to allay Western concerns about its ambitions.
“We do not want to make anybody worried… today we are negotiating for a final agreement which is reachable within six months,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iran is ready to pardon hundreds of members of an exiled Iranian opposition group based at a former military camp near Baghdad, Iran’s ambassador to Iraq told the Mehr news agency on Wednesday.
“After conducting investigations, 423 members (of the People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran — PMOI) who do not have any legal problems can return to Iran,” Hassan Danaeifar was quoted as saying.
The number represents about 14 percent of the estimated 3,000 members of the PMOI who are living in exile at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad airport.
“Iran is ready to pardon those members who did not kill anyone or do not have complaints against them,” he said, without elaborating.
Danaeifar added that a bid by “a considerable number of this group who wish to come back to Iran was blocked by their leaders.”
The leftwing PMOI was founded in the 1960s to oppose the shah of Iran.
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