DUBAI, May 21. /TASS/. Iran will withdraw from negotiations with the US if Washington continues to insist Tehran should stop uranium enrichment, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
"Our position is absolutely clear: enrichment will continue, with or without an agreement. If the parties want Iran’s nuclear program to be transparent, we are ready, but in exchange for this, talks should be held on lifting the sanctions that were imposed based on false allegations about our nuclear program. If they make more demands or seek to deprive us of our rights, it won’t be tolerated," the top diplomat told the state Iranian broadcaster.
"We are considering the possibility of joining the next round of talks. We resist excessive demands at the negotiating table but we have never rejected diplomacy," Araghchi added.
Washington officials said earlier that Tehran should abandon uranium enrichment and actually wrap up its nuclear program. The Iranian Foreign Ministry pointed out that if sanctions on Tehran were lifted, the country’s authorities were ready to engage in discussions with the US on limiting the volume and level of uranium enrichment but they would never end their nuclear program because the right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy was guaranteed to all countries that had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, with Iran being one of the first of them.
The US and Iran have held four rounds of talks on resolving disagreements over Tehran’s nuclear program, which were mediated by Oman. The first round took place in Muscat on April 12; the second one was held in Rome on April 19; the parties returned to Oman’s capital for the third round of consultations on April 26 and for the fourth round on May 11. The Iranian delegation to the talks was headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, while the US delegation was led by Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff. Wall Street Journal correspondent Laurence Norman said, citing sources, that the fifth round of Iran-US talks could take place in the Italian capital next weekend.