Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, said Wednesday to leave uranium enrichment was “100 percent” against the interests of the country, rejecting a central demand from the United States in conversations to resolve a dispute of decades about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Oman presented the US proposal for a new nuclear agreement to Iran on Saturday by Oman, who has mediated the conversations between Iraní Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and the envoy of the Middle East of President Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff.
After five rounds of conversations, there are several difficult problems, including Iran’s insistence on maintaining uranium enrichment in its soil and Tehran’s refusal to send abroad all its existing existence of highly enriched uranium, possible raw material for nuclear bombs.
Khamenei, who has the last word on all matters of state, said nothing about stopping the conversations, but said that the United States proposal “contradicts the belief of our nation in self -sufficiency and the principle of” Podemos. “
“Uranium enrichment is the key to our nuclear program and enemies have focused on enrichment,” Khamenei said during a televised speech that marks the anniversary of the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatolá Ruhollah Khomeini.
“The proposal that Americans have presented is 100 percent against our interests … The rude and arrogant leaders of the United States repeatedly demand that we should not have a nuclear program. Who are you to decide if I will have enrichment?” Added.
“Independence means not waiting for the green light of the United States and the tastes of America.”
Khamenei said: “If we have 100 nuclear centrals but we have no enrichment, they do not help us,” because “nuclear power plants need fuel” to operate. “If we cannot produce this fuel nationwide, we have to reach the United States, which can have dozens of conditions.”
Tehran says he wants to dominate nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and has long denied the accusations of the western powers that he is looking to develop nuclear weapons.
‘Maximum pressure’
Reuters He reported on Monday that Tehran was ready to reject the US proposal. As a “not start” that he could not soften Washington’s posture about uranium enrichment or to address Tehran’s interests.
He New York Times on Tuesday that the US proposal includes “an agreement that would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium at low levels” as the United States and other countries “resolve a more detailed plan destined to block the path of Iran towards a nuclear weapon.”
He said the proposal would see the United States facilitating “the construction of nuclear power plants to Iran and negotiate the construction of enrichment facilities administered by a consortium of regional countries.”
Iran has previously said that it is open to temporary limits on its enrichment of uranium and is willing to consider the establishment of a regional nuclear fuel consortium. But he has emphasized that such consortium is “in no way to replace the Uranium enrichment program of Iran.”
Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran since his return to the White House in January, which included hardening sanctions and threatening to bomb Iran if the negotiations do not produce any agreement.
Trump wants to reduce Tehran’s potential to produce a nuclear weapon that could trigger a regional nuclear arms race and perhaps threaten Israel. Iran’s clerical establishment, meanwhile, wants to get rid of devastating sanctions.
During his first term, Trump left Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six powers and reimputed sanctions that have paralyzed Iran’s economy. Iran responded by increasing enrichment far beyond the limits of the pact.
Iran’s clerical establishment is dealing with multiple crises: energy and water shortage, a coin that falls, losses among the representatives of the regional conflict militia with Israel and the growing fear of an Israeli strike in its nuclear sites, all intensified by Trump’s hard line position.
Iran’s archir-foel, which sees Tehran’s nuclear program as an existential threat, has repeatedly threatened to bombard the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic to prevent Tehran from acquireing nuclear weapons.
Tehran has promised a tough answer.
‘Less than satisfactory’
In his latest quarterly report last week, the OIEA said Iran had further intensified its highly enriched uranium production.
In a separate report, he also criticized the “less satisfactory” cooperation of Tehran, particularly in the explanation of past cases of nuclear material found in unstalled sites.
Currently, Iran enriches the uranium at 60pc, well above the 3.67pc limit established in the 2015 agreement, but still below the 90 percent threshold necessary for a nuclear eye.
The reports were presented ahead of a planned meeting of the Board of Governors of the OIEA in Vienna at the end of this month that will review Iran’s nuclear activities.
Great Britain, France and Germany, the three European countries that were part of the 2015 agreement, are currently weighing whether to trigger the “Snapback” mechanism of sanctions in the agreement.
The mechanism would restore the UN sanctions in response to the Iranian breach, an option that expires in October.
Iran has criticized the OIEA report as unbalanced, saying that it was based on “counterfeit documents” provided by Israel.
