Keystone-SDA
Iran will not give up its nuclear program and in particular the enrichment of uranium despite the American bombing, the Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. “He was arrested because, yes, the damage is serious and serious,” he added.
(Keystone-ATS) “But it is obvious that we cannot give up enrichment, because it is an achievement of our own scientists,” said Abbas Araghchi on the American television channel Fox News. “And now, more than that is a question of national pride,” he added, stressing that any future Iranian nuclear agreement will have to contain the right to enrichment.
Asked to know if enriched uranium could have been saved despite the bombings, the minister replied that he had “detailed information” on this, but that the Iranian atomic agency strives to “assess what exactly happened with our nuclear equipment, our enriched equipment”.
In support of the 12-day offensive of Israel against Iran, the United States bombed on June 22 the underground site for the enrichment of Fordo uranium, south of Tehran, and nuclear installations in Ispahan and Natanz (center).
President Donald Trump reaffirmed on Saturday that the American strikes had “completely destroyed” the three targeted sites and threatened to bomb Iran again if it resumed its enrichment program.
Discussions Friday
The Iranian Minister’s words are intervening while Iran will make new discussions on its nuclear program with Germany, France and the United Kingdom on Friday in Istanbul.
He said he was, about negotiations, “open” to indirect discussions with Washington, the two countries having had several series of discussions before the American strikes.
“We are open to discussions, but not direct at the moment,” he said on Fox News, reporting that Iran was ready to “take confidence measures to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful” in exchange for a lifting of American sanctions. The state of the Iranian nuclear program after the American bombings is the subject of many questions.
The Iranian minister also said that the missile program continued. “We have a good number of missiles to defend us,” he said. Israeli strikes had targeted missile sites.
Finally, asked about the state of health of the Iranian supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he replied: “I met him today. It is in very good shape and in very good health ”.