“The West is raising claims to increase the cost of developing peaceful nuclear energy for Iran so as to make the Islamic Republic gradually retreat [from its positions] and even give up some [of its] defense programs like building long-range missiles,” Seyyed Ahmad Avaei said on Saturday.
Referring to new claims in the latest report of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano, the lawmaker said Iran's nuclear activities have been transparent and that Tehran believes all countries are entitled to take advantage of these technologies in line with international treaties.
Amano issued his latest report on Iran's nuclear energy program on Friday claiming that traces of uranium enriched to purities of 27 percent have been found at the Fordow nuclear site, which is seven percent higher than Iran’s known enrichment grade.
Avaei, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said the West will not be satisfied with anything less than the total suspension of uranium enrichment in Iran, Majlis official news agency, ICANA, reported.
“The P5+1 - the US, France, Russia, China, and Britain plus Germany - apparently respect the Iranian nation’s right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy in their talks with the Islamic Republic’s negotiating team, to present world public opinion a good image of themselves but in reality they are not satisfied with anything short of [total] halting uranium enrichment [by Iran],” he added.
Earlier on Saturday, Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh criticized the Western media hype over traces of uranium enriched to purities of 27 percent which the IAEA says to have been found at the Fordow site.
“As mentioned in the IAEA report, the issue is a normal technical subject that is being investigated by experts,” he added.
Iran enriches uranium to 20 percent to provide fuel for Tehran’s Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer patients, and has repeatedly reiterated that it does not need or plan to enrich uranium at a level above 20 percent.
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