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)
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