TEHRAN, May 17: Iran’s president said his country will continue talks with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear programme but will not withdraw from its rights because of US threats.
“We are negotiating, and we will negotiate, we are not after war but we do not fear any threat,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said during a speech to navy officials broadcast by state television Saturday.
“It is not like that they think if they threaten us , we will give up our human right and definite right,” Pezeshkian said. “We will not withdraw, we will not easily loose honourable military, scientific, nuclear in all fields.”
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The negotiations have reached the “expert” level, meaning the sides are trying to reach agreement on the details of a possible deal. But a major sticking point remains Iran’s enrichment of uranium, which Tehran insists it must be allowed to do and the Trump administration increasingly insists the Islamic Republic must give up.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s programme if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels.
Earlier on Friday, Trump said Iran received a proposal during the talks, though he did not elaborate.
During his trip to region this week, Trump at nearly every event insisted Iran could not be allowed to obtain a nuclear bomb, something US intelligence agencies assess Tehran is not actively pursuing, though its programme is on the cusp of being able to weaponise nuclear material.
Mohammad Eslami, the head of Iran’s atomic organisation, stressed the peaceful nature of the programme, saying it is under “continuous” monitoring by the UN nuclear watchdog, state TV reported Saturday.
“No country is monitored by the agency like us,” Eslami said, adding that the agency inspected the country’s nuclear facilities more than 450 time in 2024. “Something about 25% of all the agency inspections” in the year.
Meanwhile, Israel routinely has threatened to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if it feels threatened, further complicating tensions in the Mideast already spiked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. (AP)
