
Tehran will not stop nuclear enrichment, says Iran FM
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke to Fox News' Bret Baier. Photo: Reuters
Iran has no plans to abandon its nuclear programme, including uranium enrichment, despite "severe" damage to its facilities after US strikes last month, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Monday.
For now, enrichment "is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe," Araghchi told Fox News' "Special Report with Bret Baier."
"But obviously we cannot give up enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists," he continued, calling it a source of "national pride."
He stressed that any future nuclear deal would have to contain the right to enrichment.
When asked whether any enriched uranium had been saved from the strikes, Araghchi said he had "no detailed information," but that Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation is "trying to evaluate what has exactly happened to our nuclear material, to our enriched material."
Washington bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran on June 22 to support Israel's 12-day military offensive, including the Fordow underground uranium enrichment site located south of Tehran.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly called the strikes a success, reaffirming on Saturday that all three sites were "completely destroyed."
Araghchi's remarks come as Tehran is set to hold new talks on its nuclear program with Germany, France and the United Kingdom on Friday in Istanbul.
Regarding negotiations with the United States to de-escalate regional tension, Araghchi said "we are open to talks" but "not direct for the time being."
"We are ready to do any confidence-building measure needed to prove that Iran's nuclear programme is peaceful" in exchange for lifted US sanctions, he added.
The foreign minister also confirmed that Iran would continue to develop and manufacture missiles. (AFP)

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


RTHK
7 hours ago
- RTHK
Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland
Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland Donald Trump takes questions after landing in Scotland. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump landed in Scotland on Friday for a five-day visit set to mix diplomacy, business and leisure, as a huge UK security operation swung into place amid planned protests near his family-owned golf resorts. The president, whose mother was born in Scotland, will split his time between two seaside golf courses bearing his name, in Turnberry on the southwestern coast and Aberdeen in the northeast. Air Force One, carrying the president and White House staff, touched down at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow shortly before 8:30 pm (1930 GMT). Police officers lined surrounding streets and several hundred curious Scots came out hoping for a glimpse of the US leader as he made his way to Turnberry. Trump has no public events scheduled for Saturday and is expected to play golf at his picturesque resort, before meeting EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday for trade talks. Trump is also due to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the trip. "We're going to do a little celebrating together, because we got along very well," Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Friday, calling Starmer "a good guy" doing "a very good job." He said they would discuss "fine tuning" the bilateral trade deal struck in May, and would "maybe even improve it." But the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK request for reduced steel and aluminium tariffs. Trump has exempted British exports from blanket 50 percent tariffs on both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear. "If I do it for one, I have to do it for all," Trump told reporters, when asked if he had any "wiggle room" for the UK on the issue. The international outcry over the conflict in Gaza may also be on the agenda, as Starmer faces growing pressure to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and announce that Britain will also recognise a Palestinian state. (AFP)


The Standard
18 hours ago
- The Standard
Why is France recognising Palestinian statehood and who else has?
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses parliament in the Palace of Westminster, London, on July 8, 2025 [Alastair Grant/Pool via Reuters]


South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
ICC convicts ‘Rambo' and ex-sports minister for Central African Republic war crimes
The International Criminal Court on Thursday convicted a former top Central African Republic football official and a militiaman nicknamed Rambo for war crimes committed during the country's civil war in 2013 and 2014. Ex-sports minister Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona was a senior leader of mainly Christian militias as the country slid into civil war, while Alfred Yekatom, a former MP, commanded them on the ground. The ICC sentenced Yekatom to 15 years behind bars for 20 war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder and torture. Ngaissona received 12 years for 28 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona appearing before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands in 2019. File photo: Reuters Their militia, known as anti-Balaka or 'anti-machete', were formed as vigilante self-defence groups after mainly Muslim rebels called the Seleka stormed the capital Bangui and removed then-president Francois Bozize, a Christian.