Tough stance: Iran will not give up nuclear rights, says Rowhani

Says Tehran will not give up uranium enrichment.

TEHRAN: President Hassan Rowhani said on Sunday that Iran will not abandon its nuclear rights, including uranium enrichment, media reported a day after a fresh round of talks with world powers.

“There are red lines that must not be crossed,” Rowhani told the conservative-dominated parliament in remarks quoted by the ISNA news agency.



“The rights of the Iranian nation and our national interests are a red line. So are nuclear rights under the framework of international regulations, which include enrichment on Iranian soil,” he said.

His remarks came a day after intensive negotiations with world powers -- despite making progress -- failed to produce a long-elusive deal that would curb Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Hopes had soared after top world diplomats rushed to Geneva to join the talks, but then faded as cracks began to appear among world powers when France raised concerns reportedly over the heavy water reactor being built at Arak.

The P5+1 group in the talks Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany suspects that Iran’s atomic ambitions are aimed at developing nuclear weapons, despite repeated denials.

At least a year away from becoming operational, the Arak facility would theoretically provide Iran with a second route to an atomic bomb by producing plutonium as a by-product.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th,2013.