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Iran refuses to suspend enrichment
14/4/2006 10:20

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Head of the IAEA Mohammed ElBaradei (L) at a news conference with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Tehran yesterday. -Xinhua/Reuters

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said on Thursday that Iran would not re-suspend uranium enrichment activities.

Larijani told reporters after talks with UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei that a UN Security Council statement demanding Iran to freeze the enrichment-related activities was "not so important".

"Every action must be reasonable and logical. We are cooperating in a constructive manner with the (International Atomic Energy) agency, and Mr ElBaradei is here and the inspectors and cameras are here, so such a proposal is not very important to solve the problem," Larijani said.

On his part, ElBaradei termed his talks with Larijani as "constructive".

"I can tell you on the issue of cooperation to resolve outstanding issues, Mr Larijani renewed his commitment that the Islamic Republic of Iran will accelerate its efforts to work with us in next couple of weeks to provide clarity to the issue that we need to clarify," the IAEA chief said.

ElBaradei also said that he had called on Iran to solve outstanding issues within the remaining time and suspend its nuclear activities for a specific period of time until the submission of his report to the Security Council, the official IRNA news agency reported.

In response, Larijani said that Iran is committed to its undertakings and will announce its stance during the remaining two weeks.

ElBaradei arrived in Tehran early Thursday morning and his 24-hour visit came just two days after Iran announced that it had successfully enriched uranium to fuel nuclear power reactors.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Tuesday that Iran had successfully produced 3.5 percent enriched uranium, a technological milestone in the process for nuclear power plant construction.

The UN Security Council adopted a presidential statement on March 29, granting Iran 30 days to comply, but the requirement has been rejected by Tehran as illegal.

Ahmadinejad vowed on Thursday that his country would not compromise on its nuclear programs.



Xinhua News