DUBAI, February 7. /TASS/. Iran will continue to exercise its legitimate right to peacefully develop its nuclear program, regardless of other countries trying to interfere in the process, President Ebrahim Raisi said at a meeting with ambassadors of the countries having their missions in Tehran.
"Nuclear-weapon states are seeking to prevent the Iranian people from realizing their legitimate right to peaceful nuclear development, but let them know that we will stand up for our rights," the president said, as cited by the IRNA news agency.
According to Raisi, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has issued 15 official statements saying that Tehran’s nuclear program is consistent with peaceful development. However, the IAEA, as the Iranian president asserts, "does not stick to its statements." Raisi recalled the fatwa (a legal opinion of a religious figure) issued by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which says that the development of nuclear weapons runs counter to the canons of Islam.
"We have not walked away from the negotiating table and we won’t do so. We have always taken steps to explain our standpoint both to the agency (IAEA - TASS) and to the countries that are willing to listen to how Iran will use nuclear energy. Instead of accepting our logic, they first imposed wars on us, and on top of that, imposed sanctions. Neither war nor sanctions could stop Iran from accomplishing its goals," the president added.
On February 6, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said that he was mulling visiting Iran in February or March to talk about further development of its nuclear program. On February 2, Grossi said that Iran had significantly decreased its production of highly enriched uranium, but it continues to add to its supply of uranium enriched to 60% purity. If enriched further above 90% purity, uranium can be used to produce nuclear weapons.
On December 19, the United Kingdom, Germany and France said citing an IAEA report that Iran’s stocks of enriched uranium were 22 times above the level of 202.8 kilos permitted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, known as the Iran nuclear deal). In this regard, the three countries pointed out that Iran was violating its commitments under Resolution 2231 of the UN Security Council, which approved the JCPOA. Tehran has dismissed these allegations.
Iran nuclear deal
Tehran signed the JCPOA in 2015 along with five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany in order to address the crisis over Iran’s nuclear research. In 2018, then US President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement. Incumbent US President Joe Biden, however, has repeatedly signaled that Washington was willing to return to the nuclear deal, but talks on the restoration of the deal were derailed. In November 2022, Biden admitted on the sidelines of a meeting with Democratic voters that the Iran nuclear deal was "dead", but added that Washington would not announce this in public.