Tehran: Iran will never abandon its "legal and obvious" right to nuclear technology, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Tuesday.
"The meetings with world powers and their behaviour shows that Iran`s right to have peaceful nuclear technology has been accepted by them ... Iran will never abandon its legal and obvious right," Mottaki told a news conference.
Talks between Iran and world powers on a deal to allay concerns about Tehran`s nuclear programme started on Monday in Vienna and were resuming on Tuesday. The U.N. atomic agency chief said the talks started well.
The meeting hosted by the IAEA offered the first chance to build on proposals raised at Geneva talks on Oct. 1 to defuse a standoff over suspicions Iran`s uranium enrichment programme is covertly intended to develop nuclear weapons.
Mottaki praised the talks. Iran agreed in Geneva in principle to sending low-enriched uranium abroad for processing into fuel for a Tehran reactor producing medical isotopes.
"We see serious development in the talks ... the continuation of talks can lead to a deal over supplying Iran with the 20 percent enriched uranium," Mottaki said.
The West hopes the step will minimise the risk of Iran refining the material to high purity suitable for bombs.
State-run Iranian television said on Monday Tehran would not deal directly with France since it had failed to deliver nuclear materials in the past.
Bureau Report
