Iran "will never stop" its uranium enrichment – envoy

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran "will never stop" its uranium enrichment, the country's envoy to the IAEA said on Tuesday, Aug 28, on the sidelines of a Non-Aligned Movement ministerial meeting in Tehran.

"Our enrichment activities will never stop and we are justified in carrying them out, and we will continue to do so under IAEA supervision," Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters. "We will not give up our inalienable right to enrichment."

Iran's enrichment is to again be raised this week, when the IAEA is expected to release its latest report based on its ongoing inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities. Some of the report's findings have already been leaked to Israeli and US media, mainly those confirming a July 25 statement by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that hundreds more uranium enrichment centrifuges had been installed.

Iran's refusal to allow inspectors into a military base outside Tehran, Parchin, could also form part of the report.

Soltanieh responded by saying that Parchin "has been blown out of proportion" and said claims of nuclear warhead design tests there were "fabricated by foreign intelligence."

He said Iran was demanding to see the documents the IAEA was using to pursue its suspicions about Parchin and urged the agency to "close this chapter." He also said Iran has complained to the IAEA about the leaks.

On Iran's intent to continue enriching uranium, Soltanieh noted that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the IAEA's statutes made no explicit mention of levels of enrichment.

"The level of enrichment and how much to enrich has not been fixed in either of those. There is no limitation," he said.

"Everything we do is under the supervision of the agency," he stressed.

The United States and its Western allies, and Israel, suspect that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons "break-out" capability. Iran denies that, saying its nuclear program is purely for civilian use.