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Iran “will never stop” enriching uranium, its ambassador to the UN said on Sunday.
“The enrichment is our right, an inalienable right, and we want to implement this right,” Amir-Saeid Iravani told CBS News, saying that Iran would pursue a civilian nuclear program.
He added that Iran is ready for negotiations but “unconditional surrender is not negotiation. It is dictating the policy toward us.”
While Iran is “ready for the negotiation,” he continued, “after this aggression, it is not proper condition for a new round of the negotiation, and there is no request for negotiation and meeting with the president.”
Iravani also denied that that Tehran had made any threats towards Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The day before, Iravani said Iran could transfer its stocks of enriched uranium to another country in the event of an agreement with the US, or that they could remain in Iran under IAEA supervision.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump dismissed reports that Iran had moved 400kg of enriched uranium ahead of last weekend’s US strikes on nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
“It’s very hard to do, dangerous to do, it’s very heavy, plus we didn’t give them much notice because they didn’t know we were coming,” Trump told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo.
President Trump also dismissed reports that the damage to the facilities was not total, as reported by The Washington Post, which claimed the US intercepted Iranian communications saying the facilities had not been completely destroyed.
IAEA head Grossi has said Iran could begin re-enriching uranium quickly, despite the damage done to its facilities by US and Israeli strikes.
Grossi said “very serious” damage had been done to the facilities, but enrichment could be resumed in month.
“The capacities they have are there,” he said.
“They can have, you know, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that. But as I said, frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared and there is nothing there.”
