As the G5+1 group of countries (i.e., the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) is preparing to start a new round of talks with the Islamic republic of Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, some Iranian officials have announced that the country is ready to reduce its nuclear enrichment activities to below 5 percent purity in return for the lifting of the sanctions against it. The spokesperson of parliament’s national security committee also said that Iran was ready to suspend its plans to enrich uranium up to 20% purity.
According to Iran’s ISNA student news agency, Ali Ahani, the country’s ambassador to Paris told reporters, “Iran continues to uphold its proposal over its peaceful nuclear program. Iran had earlier announced that if it acquired the necessary nuclear fuel rods to be used in its research centers and the sanctions were lifted, it would be ready to reduce its nuclear enrichment activities to below 5%.”
With the G5+1 states on his mind, Ahani further said, “Now the G5+1 group of states can take a step forward by recognizing Iran’s current peaceful nuclear capabilities and prepare the groundwork for a roadmap to come to an agreement.”
On relations with the US, Ahani said that he did foresee direct talks soon because, as he put it, “Mistrust between the two sides (Iran and the US) is very high and nobody expects bilateral talks with the US.” He also said that that the end of the US presidential elections provided an opportunity to restart the international talks over the nuclear issue.
In another related development, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesperson for Majlis’s national security and foreign policy committee, said, “The Western alliance is now more united than before and they believe that Iran is in a corner because of which they want us to retreat from our position.” He added that Iran was ready to suspend its 20% uranium enrichment activities. “We had announced our readiness for this in the past as well. This is a positive development by Iran and can be a test issue for the West to see how serious they are in resolving the issues,” he concluded.
These remarks announcements are made at a time when in recent weeks speculation about the nuclear standoff between Iran and the West has been on the rise. Western media last week quoted “an informed source” to have said that the Islamic republic was already working to shut the Bushehr nuclear power plant, something that has been denied by officials from the Islamic republic.
Last month and as new sanctions were put into effect against Iran, Mohammad Hassan Asfari, a member of the national security committee of the Majlis told ISNA news agency that Iran was ready to show “good faith” by suspending work on enriching uranium to 20% purity. “As the Islamic republic has stopped work on enriching uranium to 20% purity to show its good faith, it is expected that the G5+1 group of Western states will lift their sanctions,” he said. He threatened that should this measure not receive the response it deserves Iran would continue its earlier activities to attain peaceful nuclear energy.” “With the position that the G5+1 has adopted, there seems no positive outcome from the future talks with the group, but still to show its good faith, the Islamic republic is ready to engage in the talks,” he added.
These recent remarks about suspending activities related to 20% uranium enrichment come after Ali Asqar Soltanie, Iran’s representative at the IAEA, told reporters that Iran had proposed suspending activities related to the enrichment of uranium to 20% purity. At that time, Allaedin Borujerdi, the head of the national security committee of the Majlis had made similar remarks: “Today the country does not need to produce 20% enriched uranium. We shall act on our national interests in this regard and this is a voluntary act on behalf of the Islamic republic.”
The West has implemented various sanctions against the Islamic republic, the latest of which related to the sale and purchase of gas. During the presidential debate in the United States, Barack Obama had said that the sanctions against Iran were working and added that Iran’s currency had lost 80 percent of its value and its oil production had dropped to pre-war levels.
