Talks between the Iranian government and the West on Tehran’s nuclear program resume in Geneva on Wednesday amid President Hassan Rouhani’s push to improve his country’s image abroad.
Rouhani made a point of hinting at concessions over the issue during the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
But Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian television says that Tehran would not be prepared to cede to all the demands by the US and her allies.
“We’ll not allow (uranium) enrichment to be suspended, even for one day. I mean the enrichment itself (is not negotiable), but the extent and level of enrichment is negotiable. Shipping the (nuclear) material abroad is our red line. For various reasons we are not willing to do it and we will not agree to the shipment of even one gram of uranium from Iran,” he said in the interview.
It suggests that any prospect of the West lifting sanctions on Iran some way off.
Israel has been one vocal critic of the Iranian government’s overtures, dismissing them as a “cynical PR stunt.”
Euronews’ Fariba Mabvaddat asked Naser Hadian, a professor of international relations at Tehran University, if Rouhani’s stance really represents a turning point.
Click on the video above to see the full interview.