Iran’s nuclear activities transparent: Rouhani

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has dismissed as a “big lie” Western allegations that the country has been pursuing a secret nuclear program, saying that Tehran has shown the transparency of its peaceful nuclear work to the word.

“That they say Iran has had secret activities in this respect is a big lie; We first turned to Europeans to get the [ uranium enrichment] technology; If we wanted to conceal [our activities] we wouldn’t raise these issues with a Western country,” Rouhani said at a conference marking National Engineers' Day in Tehran on Monday.

He said the European country refused to give Iran the technology to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. “We also discussed [the issue] with Russia for a long time…. But finally they didn’t accept to give us enrichment technology; We also talked with Chinese and all these show that we have not concealed our work; We talked to the whole world and each [country] made an excuse,” Rouhani said.

Rouhani further hailed efforts made by Iranian scientist and engineers in achieving the uranium enrichment know-how and installing centrifuges.

President Rouhani further praised efforts by Iranian diplomats present in the nuclear talks with the P5+1 group over Tehran's nuclear program.

Earlier on Sunday, Rouhani said the make-up of the country’s nuclear negotiating team shows Tehran’s determination to have constructive interaction with the world, describing the country’s nuclear negotiators as the soldiers of Iran’s diplomatic front line.

Iran and the P5+1 group – Britain, France, China, Russia, and the United States plus Germany – have been holding talks to resolve a dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.