Former Negotiator: Iran Not to Retreat from Nuclear Rights
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Former Iranian negotiator on Monday highlighted the country's nuclear rights as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and voiced Tehran’s determination to defend nation’s rights to access nuclear energy.
“Enrichment is one of the rights of the Iranian nation and should not be traded,” Saeed Jalili said in Iran's Northeaster city of Bojnourd.
Addressing a gathering of university students, the former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) also said that enemies should not be permitted to define limitations and conditions for the country's rights.
“The nuclear rights of our nation are enshrined in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” he said.
Jalili meanwhile stressed that Iran will not retreat even a single step from its nuclear rights, arguing, “That is because if the enemy feels there is a spot for its penetration; it will definitely move in and undemine our nation’s rights.”
That is while the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said on December 20 that Iran will not compromise on its rights should the Western side renege on the nuclear deal recently struck with Tehran.
“If the Western side violates the provisions of the agreement, we will continue on our path and will not back down from our right,” Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters in the city of Qom.
Salehi, however, expressed hope that the agreement signed between Iran and six major world powers in the Swiss city of Geneva will be fully implemented.
Iran will remain committed to its obligations, but will not renounce its rights enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the AEOI chief underscored.
On November 24, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - Russia, China, France, Britain and the US - plus Germany inked an interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva to set the stage for the full resolution of the dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
As part of the Geneva deal, it was agreed that in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the country would be provided with a certain amount of sanctions relief and no more nuclear-related sanctions would be imposed on the country for six months.
