On Wednesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei criticized the US’s nuclear proposal and vowed Tehran would never get rid of its uranium enrichment program, saying the issue was none of the US’s “business.”
“A nuclear industry without enrichment capabilities is useless because we would then be dependent on others to obtain fuel for our power plants,” Khamenei said in a televised speech marking the 36th anniversary of the death of his predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini.
“Thousands of nuclear scientists and researchers have been trained in Iran. Should we disappoint them, make them unemployed and take away their hope in our country’s future? The rude, insolent US leaders want this. In the current nuclear talks that are being mediated by Oman, the US proposal is 100% against the spirit of ‘We can,'” Khamenei said.
“To the American side and others we say: Why are you interfering and trying to say whether Iran should have uranium enrichment or not? That’s none of your business,” the Iranian leader added.
According to media reports, the US proposal would allow Iran to enrich uranium at low levels for an interim period before the establishment of new nuclear facilities that will be run by a consortium of countries, including Saudi Arabia and other Arab states.
Iranian officials have made clear they wouldn’t go for a deal that doesn’t allow uranium enrichment on its own soil. But according to Axios, the proposal doesn’t specify where the nuclear facilities would be established, and an Iranian source suggested Tehran could be open to a deal that allows the consortium to operate in Iran.
Also on Wednesday, President Trump accused Iran of “slow walking” its response to the US proposal, comments he made after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“It is my opinion that Iran has been slowwalking their decision on this very important matter, and we will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time!” he said.
US and Iranian officials are expected to hold another round of negotiations this weekend. Trump gave Tehran a deadline of June 12 to reach a nuclear deal, and the talks are being conducted under the threat that the US will bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities if an agreement isn’t reached despite US intelligence agencies concluding that Iran isn’t working toward a nuclear bomb.
Israel, which has a secret nuclear weapons program and a stockpile of nuclear warheads, has also been threatening to attack Iran as a way to sabotage the diplomacy between Washington and Tehran.
