FM: Iran to Continue Nuclear Activities

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran will continue its nuclear enrichment program, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said after five days of marathon talks between Iran and the six world powers led to the endorsement of a deal early on Sunday,according to FNA.

“The (nuclear) program has been recognized and the Iranian people’s right to use the peaceful nuclear technology based on the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and as an inalienable right has been recognized and countries are necessitated not to create any obstacle on its way,” Zarif said in a press conference in Geneva on Saturday morning.

“The (nuclear) program will continue and all the sanctions and violations against the Iranian nation under the pretext of the nuclear program will be removed gradually,” he added.

He said the next six months will be a serious start towards “the full removal of all UN Security Council, unilateral and multilateral sanctions, while the country’s enrichment program will be maintained.” “Production of 5-percent-enriched uranium will continue in the country similar the past,” Zarif continued.

“None of the enrichment centers will be closed and Fordo and Natanz will continue their work and the Arak heavy water program will continue in its present form and no material (enriched uranium stockpiles) will be taken out of the country and all the enriched materials will remain inside the country. The current sanctions will move towards decrease, no sanctions will be imposed and Iran’s financial resources will return,” he continued.

Stressing that Iran’s nuclear case is moving towards normalization, the Iranian top diplomat said, “An unnecessary crisis which was used by the ill-wishers is moving towards settlement with God’s help and the efforts of all the involved officials. The fire of conflicts in the region was prevented and the plots of the ill-wishers of the Iranian nation were foiled and they saw that they can’t prevent manifestation of the realities about the Iranian nation with lies, hues and cries and deception.”

“This is a great success that the attempts made by the Zionist regime’s leaders to misrepresent Iran’s peaceful nuclear program and the Iranian people’s face were foiled,” he said.

“We saw that a power which claimed that it can control the public opinion was empty,” Zarif said.

“I hope that we can reach the goals designed by the Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei) and constantly pursued by the Iranian nation with solidarity and sympathy and consensus,” he said.

“It is an action plan in four pages, whose English version has no clause and has been regulated in three stages and its goals are within the framework of an introduction.”

“Iran’s enrichment program has been recognized both in the first step and in the goals section and in the final step as well,” Zarif said.

“The fact that all these pressures have failed to cease Iran’s enrichment program is a very important success for the Iranian nation’s resistance,” he added.

He said the agreement includes practical assurances, and said “a joint commission of Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) responsible for supervising its implementation by both sides” is that assurance.

“This step will take six months and we haven’t started it as a sectional move, rather we have started it as a long-term goal; and paving the ground for a complete removal of the problem through this first step is our goal.”

Noting that all the measures are reversible in the first step–the first six-month-period– he said, “If we see any breach occurs in the commitments of the other side, and I hope that it will not happen, there will be a possibility for reversing (the actions). We are not in such a status to accept implementing the agreement unilaterally, if the other side doesn’t comply with its undertakings.”

“With open eyes and by fully protecting the people’s rights, if, God forbid, we come to this conclusion that the other side has misused the created opportunity, we will surely have other choices (to pick up),” Zarif underlined.

Iran and the G5+1 reached an agreement in Geneva on Sunday after five days of intense negotiatiions since Wednesday and holding several rounds of talks in the past few years.

M.D