By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Fox News that Tehran cannot give up on its uranium enrichment program which was severely damaged during the Israel-Iran war last month.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
Prior to the war, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of nuclear talks mediated by Oman but could not agree on the extent to which Iran should be allowed to enrich uranium. Israel and Washington say Iran was close to enriching to levels that would allow it to quickly produce a nuclear weapon, while Tehran says its enrichment program is for civilian purposes only.
KEY QUOTES
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up (on) enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the foreign minister told the Fox News show “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Monday.
The foreign minister said the damage to the nuclear facilities in Iran after U.S. and Israeli strikes was serious and was being evaluated further.
Araghchi also said Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was in “good health” and that Tehran was open to talks with Washington but that those will not be direct “for the time being.”
CONTEXT
U.S. ally Israel attacked Iran on June 13 and the Middle Eastern rivals then engaged in an air war for 12 days in which Washington also bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. A ceasefire was reached in late June.
Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, while Israel is not. The U.N. nuclear watchdog says it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is solely meant for civilian purposes.
Israel is the only Middle Eastern country believed to have nuclear weapons and said its war against Iran aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Editing by Franklin Paul, Stephen Coates and Himani Sarkar)
