Salehi’s remarks came on Saturday during an exclusive interview with al-Alam Arabic language TV news network in which he said that Iran’s proposal to redesign the Arak reactor to reduce the level of its plutonium production by one-fifth has been welcomed by the P5+1 negotiators.
The P5+1 countries are the five permanent members of United Nations Security Council – China, France, Britain, Russia and the US – plus Germany.
Salehi further noted that some members of the P5+1 nations suggested to build a light water reactor for Iran, but implied that Iran rejected the offer since light water reactor is merely used for production of electricity and heavy water is used for producing radio medicine, which Iran needs.
The Iranian top nuclear official also emphasized that the Islamic Republic has finalized the issue of downgrading its uranium enrichment level from 20 percent to five percent earlier in April and the this issue has been closed.
He went on to add that Iran no longer has any outstanding issues with the IAEA concerning its nuclear activity and there are no more unanswered questions by the agency.
“In other words, it can be stated that the case of Iranian nuclear activity is considered as closed,” Salehi said.
During the interview Salehi, however, criticized IAEA’s insistence to visit Iran’s Parchin military base for a third time, despite the fact that there are no nuclear activity at the base, which has been confirmed by the agency in two earlier visits, when they too samples and concluded that there are no suspicious issues there.
He then reiterated that IAEA’s new demand to visit Parchin is based on erroneous and unverified reports that they receive form unknown sources and “we don’t believe such trend should not continue indefinitely.”
However, he further clarified that in case the IAEA shares with us the information they claim to possess to assure us of its validity, then Iran would welcome another visit to Parchin. But he emphasized that so far the agency has refused to provide us with the information they claim to have, justifying another visit to the military facility.
Iranian and the P5+1 negotiators wrapped up their latest round of high-level talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program on April 9.
The two sides sealed an interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013 to pave the way for the full resolution of the decade-old dispute with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program. The deal came into force on January 20.
MB/MB