‘Iran not to give up nuclear rights’

Iran will never renounce its peaceful nuclear rights under pressure, a top aide to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will never be influenced by pressure exerted by others who seek to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights and will never back down from its rights,” Ali Akbar Velayati told IRNA on Friday.

Iran insists on its nuclear rights and is always ready to negotiate in any part of the world in order to defend its rights, he added.

He said that there is no consensus among the P5+1 countries, stressing, “Some of them would rather Iran be deprived of its nuclear rights and this is while inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have repeatedly emphasized that what Iran is doing is peaceful.”

Velayati added that nuclear talks would continue within the framework of policies determined by Ayatollah Khamenei to safeguard Iran’s nuclear rights.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain – plus Germany have been discussing ways to iron out their differences and start drafting a final deal that would end the West’s dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

In November 2013, the two sides signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva that came into force on January 20.

The next round of high-level negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear energy program is scheduled for June 16-20 in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.