Iran not to cease high-grade uranium enrichment

A senior Iranian offcial said Sunday that Iran will not stop high-grade uranium enrichment and will not close down the Fordo nuclear site, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, center, visits the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility some 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. [Xinhua]

Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Fereidoon Abbasi told ISNA that there is no justification for the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany (G5+ 1) to require Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium to the grade of 20 percent.

"We won't enrich 20-percent uranium beyond our needs, because it is not economical to produce and to keep it," he said.

"We will produce (20-percent uranium) to the amount to meet the needs of Tehran research reactor and the reactors that we are planning to build in future," he continued.

Abbasi said that Iran will not close down the underground Fordo enrichment site near the central city of Qom under the West's pressure.

"The demands of G5+1 to suspend the (enrichment) activities in Fordo site is illogical," said the Iranian atomic chief, adding that building a nuclear site underground is a countermove to the strike threats by some countries.

Abbasi made those remarks in response to Sunday's reports that in the coming nuclear talks between Iran and G5+1, Western countries will ask Iran to stop its high-grade uranium enrichment and close down Fordo nuclear enrichment site.

Iran wants nothing beyond the rights enshrined by Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday during a meeting with the visiting former Japanese premier Yukio Hatoyama in Tehran.

He criticized G5+1 for setting unilateral demands in the nuclear talks, saying that the two parties must consider each other's demands in the negotiations, according to IRNA.

Iran will put forward practical proposals in the upcoming nuclear talks with G5+1, Ahmadinejad said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Saturday that the next round of nuclear talks will give the West a "chance" to establish trust, Press TV reported.

Tehran will not give up its nuclear rights as a signatory to the NPT and as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Salehi in a meeting with Hatoyama in Tehran.

"Iran has endured all problems and restrictions for more than three decades to preserve its political independence and is determined continue this path," he was quoted as saying.

The nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1 will be held on April 14 in Istanbul, Michael Mann, a spokesman of EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton told Xinhua on Sunday.

Quoting an unnamed source, Fars said that if there is good progress in Istanbul talks, the following round of talks will be held in the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad.

The news has not been officially confirmed by the G5+1.