Iran is open to negotiations with the United States but has no plans to stop uranium enrichment, a senior government official said Thursday.
In an interview with NBC News in Tehran, Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi called the US strikes on Iran on 21 a “naked act of aggression.”
“As long as there is no act of aggression being perpetrated by the United States against us, we will not respond again,” he stressed.
Takht-Ravanchi asked “how can we trust the Americans?” following the attacks during these negotiations. “We want them to explain as to why they misled us, why they took such an egregious action against our people,” he added.
Even so, he suggested that his nation would be open to new talks if these requests are satisfied.
“We are for diplomacy” and “we are for dialogue,” he said, But the U.S. government needs “to convince us that they are not going to use military force while we are negotiating,” he said. “That is an essential element for our leadership to be in a position to decide about the future round of talks.”
Asked if Iran planned to continue uranium enrichment, Takht-Ravanchi said, “Our policy has not changed on enrichment.”
“Under the NPT, Iran has every right to do enrichment within its territory,” he said, referring to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970.
“The only thing that we have to observe is not to go for militarization.”
Iran, he said, “ready to engage with others to talk about the scope, the level, the capacity of our enrichment program.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has suggested that Iran’s 880 pounds of highly-enriched uranium may have been moved somewhere else before the attacks. Takht-Ravanchi declined to comment.
“I do not know where those materials are, and I will stop at that,” he said.
Source: NBC News (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
