Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Sunday that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is the basis for Iran's nuclear talks with the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Iran has been a signatory to NPT and signed the treaty in the early stages of its emergence," Mehmanparast was quoted as saying when speaking about Iran's talks with the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany, known as P5+1.
The spokesman said that the Islamic republic never wants to militarize its national nuclear program and regards uranium enrichment for civilian use as its legitimate rights.
"If the Western governments acknowledge the civilian nature of Iranian nuclear program and ask for halting the 20-percent enrichment, Iran will consider their request," the report quoted him as saying.
However, a senior Iranian cleric said on Friday that the Islamic republic would not give up its right to producing enriched uranium to a purity level of 20 percent.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, Tehran's Friday prayer's leader, made the remarks in a sermon at the University of Tehran one day after Iran and the six world powers held a new round of talks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
The Baghdad talks were concluded Thursday with a plan to hold another round of talks in Moscow next month. |