Iranian Foreign Minister and lead negotiator on the US-Iran Nuclear deal, Abbas Araghchi, has said that his country cannot give up on its uranium enrichment programme despite the recent US strikes. The Trump administration announced strikes on three Iranian nuclear research facilities in Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow.
“The facilities are defunct due to severe and serious damage, but we cannot give up our enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists, and now more than that, it is a question of national pride,” Araghchi told the US broadcaster Fox News in an interview aired on Monday.
Though he said his country was “willing to return to the negotiating table with the US, but they would be indirect for the time being.” “If the US is coming for a win-win solution, I am ready to engage with them,” he said. He further said, “We are ready to do any confidence-building measure needed to prove that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful and would remain peaceful forever, and Iran would never go for nuclear weapons, and in return, we expect them to lift their sanctions.”
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“So my message to the United States is simple: let's negotiate a solution for Iran’s nuclear programme,” he said. Araghchi’s 16-minute-long interview with Pro trump media outlet is one of the few top broadcasters in the United States closely watched by US President Donald Trump.
“There is a negotiated solution for our nuclear programme. We have done it once in the past. We are ready to do it once again,” Araghchi added. Tehran and Washington engaged in nuclear talks this summer for two months with distrust, where the IAEA accused Iran of carrying out secretive nuclear activities, and Iran accused the Trump administration of using talks as a distraction to carry out illegal strikes on the country.
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