Indirect talks between Iran and President Joe Biden’s administration, which aim to bring both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the nuclear pact, have stalled since March…reports Asian Lite News
Tehran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has yet to decide whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera’s Arabic service on Sunday.
“In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium … Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one,” Kamal Kharrazi said.
In 2018, former US President Donald Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, under which Iran curbed its uranium enrichment work, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
About a year into Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran, Tehran started violating the pact’s nuclear restrictions.
Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons, saying it is refining uranium only for civilian energy uses, and has said its breaches of the international deal are reversible if the United States lifts sanctions and rejoins the agreement.
Indirect talks between Iran and President Joe Biden’s administration, which aim to bring both Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the nuclear pact, have stalled since March.
Kharrazi said Tehran would never negotiate over its missile programme and regional policy, as demanded by the West and its allies in the Middle East.
‘Excessive use reduces effect of US sanctions’
Western and US sanctions have become “a blunt sword” after excessive use, Abolfazl Amoui, Spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament, said.
A number of countries are thinking about de-dollarising their trade by using local currencies, Amoui told official IRNA news agency.
The Russian and Iranian banks have already adopted new financial mechanism for trade transactions excluding the dollar, he added.
Amoui also dismissed US concerns regarding the military and technological cooperation between Iran and Russia, including drone technology.
“America is not in a position to set a task for bilateral cooperation between Iran and Russia,” he said.
“The recent developments have not caused any disruption to this cooperation,” the Iranian spokesman added.
Meanwhile, the presence of foreign forces in West Asia will “cause more insecurity rather than creating security,” Amoui said, hinting at US President Joe Biden’s ongoing visit to the Middle East.
