Iran will not stop uranium enrichment, Hassan Rouhani says in New York
Washington Post
Iranian Centrifuges
By Anne Gearan September 26 at 7:55 PM
NEW YORK — Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program are moving much too slowly, but the country will not “surrender” on the key sticking point of uranium enrichment, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Friday.
Talks between Iran and world powers are stalled over the question of what limitations Iran will accept on its uranium-enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. Negotiators met nearly daily over the past two weeks but apparently made no headway. A July deadline for a deal was extended to Nov. 24.
“The remaining time for reaching an agreement is extremely short,” Rouhani said at a news conference. “The progress that has been witnessed in the last two days has been extremely slow. We must have a more-fast pace to move forward.”
Expectations had been high that foreign ministers of the six powers negotiating with Iran would join the talks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. But French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters Friday that he and his counterparts would not do so because “there are no significant advances at the moment.”
Rouhani acknowledged division at the talks, saying that “not all our opinions match,” and some political hard-liners in Iran are opposed to his efforts to pursue a deal. But Rouhani said there is solid popular and high-level political support in Iran for the talks after more than a decade of impasse.
The Iranian leader said there is no plan for him to talk to President Obama, as he did by telephone during last year’s U.N. gathering, or for the two presidents to meet. Obama has said he would be open to such a meeting under the right circumstances. The two nations have been estranged for 35 years.
Rouhani said a nuclear deal can be “a solid foundation for mutual trust-building” and improved relations.
“We must bring more effort to bear,” Rouhani said of the talks, speaking through an interpreter. He would not give details of the chief sticking point, which is the scope of the uranium-enrichment program that Iran would retain.
The United States and its partners want deep cuts to Iran’s estimated 10,000 centrifuges, the machines used to make nuclear fuel, leaving Iran with a small, face-saving program that could not be quickly redirected toward building a nuclear bomb. Iran insists that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful and aimed at energy production.
“Iran will never surrender its legal right to peaceful nuclear activities,” Rouhani said. “Uranium enrichment will continue in Iran.”
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