Source Rejects Suspension of Iran’s Enrichment in Exchange for Lifting Sanctions

(FNA)- An informed close to the Iranian team of negotiators categorically denied media reports that Tehran has agreed to study suspension of uranium enrichment in exchange for the removal of the existing sanctions by the world powers.

The informed source told FNA on the condition of anonymity that media reports claiming that Iran will study halt in its uranium enrichment activities in lieu of a removal of the sanctions is "not true".

AFP quoted a western source as saying that the powers could discuss lifting sanctions on Iran in exchange for specific concessions, although the source provided no further details.

Earlier today, an informed source told reporters after the first round of talks between Iran and the six world powers in Almaty, Kazakhstan, that the world powers have not presented any proposal to Iran demanding the closure of Fordo underground uranium enrichment facility near the Central city of Qom or suspension of Iran's 20% uranium enrichment program.

Fordo enrichment facility hosts Iran's uranium enrichment to the purity level of 20% which is needed for fueling a research reactor in Tehran which produces radioisotopes for medical purposes.

The new round of talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 started in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday morning.

Iran and the Group 5+1 have already held three rounds of talks in Geneva, two rounds in Istanbul, one round in Baghdad and one round in Moscow. The last round of talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 was held in Moscow in June.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions and the western embargos for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed West's demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.