Iran to Resume 20% Enrichment if Nuclear Talks Fail: MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian lawmaker said failure of talks with world powers on the country’s nuclear program will result in the continuation of Tehran’s entire nuclear activities, including 20-percent uranium enrichment.
Iran will resume enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent purity and would press ahead with its nuclear activities at the Fordow site and the Arak heavy-water reactor, should the negotiations with the sextet of world powers fall to yield results, Ahmad Reza Dastgheib told the Tasnim News Agency.
The lawmaker, who serves as the deputy chairman of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, also said the US should be held accountable if the negotiation parties fail to secure a comprehensive nuclear deal, since Washington has always had a “negative outlook” on Iran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.
Iran and the group of six world powers (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) agreed to keep holding talks on Tehran’s nuclear program for four more months after missing a self-imposed July 20 deadline to reach a final agreement.
After more than three weeks of intensive diplomatic negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna that began on July 2, the two sides decided to extend the nuclear talks until November 24 in the hope of clinching a final deal to resolve the decade-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear energy program.
