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.