Iran’s Supreme Leader said Monday his country “will not back down” on itsright to pursue its nuclear program and could enrich uranium up to 60%purity for civilian use.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was addressing a meeting of the Assembly of Experts,a powerful 88-member clerical body, in the Iranian capital Tehran.
“Like other issues, the Islamic Republic will not back down on the nuclearissue and will continue to move forward on the basis of the country’spresent and future needs,” he noted.
He said Iran “does not seek nuclear weapons,” adding even if the IslamicRepublic decided to produce them, no one could prevent it from doingso.
“That international Zionist clown has said they won’t allow Iran to producenuclear weapons,” he remarked, obliquely referring to Israeli premierBenjamin Netanyahu. “First of all, if we had any such intention, even thosemore powerful than him would not be able to stop us.”
On Iran’s scaling back of commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord,Khamenei said Tehran will return to full compliance when other signatoriesfulfill their obligations.
He also called on the Hassan Rouhani-led government and parliament to”resolve their differences” on implementing the recently passed law aimedat countering US sanctions.
As part of the law, Iran is slated to stop the implementation of theAdditional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on Feb. 23,limiting the access of inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog, theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to Iranian nuclear sites.
Iran’s leader termed it a “good law” and said it should be “executedprecisely.”
*’Bad deal’*
Read Top Stories
Pertinently, Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament has taken umbrage tothe deal reached between Iran’s nuclear agency and the IAEA during IAEADirector General Rafael Grossi’s visit to Tehran on Sunday.
Iranian lawmakers on Monday criticized Tehran’s decision to allow“necessary” monitoring by the UN nuclear watchdog for up to three months,saying it goes against the spirit of the law, which calls for ending allsnap inspections beyond the NPT safeguards agreement.
“The government has no right to decide and act arbitrarily,” the head ofparliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, MojtabaZolnour, was quoted as saying by local media.
Under the agreement reached between Iran and the IAEA on Sunday, Iran willhold back camera footage at its nuclear facilities for three months.
If sanctions are lifted in that period, the data will be shared with theagency. Otherwise, it will be destroyed, according to Iran’s permanentenvoy to Vienna-based international organizations Kazem Gharibabadi.
This, however, has not gone down well with lawmakers. Iran’s parliamentspeaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Monday that Iran is “determined tostop” implementation of the Additional Protocol and limit the access of theIAEA inspectors beyond the safeguards agreement.
He asked parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission andenergy commission to conduct field inspections and submit a report, adding”any violation of the law” will be dealt with according to the law.
