{"id":383827,"date":"2025-11-16T21:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/383827\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T21:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:44:11","slug":"iran-no-longer-enriching-uranium-foreign-minister-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/383827\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran no longer enriching uranium, foreign minister says"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s foreign minister said Sunday that Tehran is no longer enriching uranium<\/a> at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program.<\/p>\n

Answering a question from an Associated Press journalist visiting Iran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered the most direct response yet from the Iranian government regarding its nuclear program following Israel and the United States\u2019 bombing of its enrichment sites in June<\/a> during a 12-day war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no undeclared nuclear enrichment in Iran. All of our facilities are under the safeguards and monitoring\u201d of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Araghchi said. \u201cThere is no enrichment right now because our facilities \u2014 our enrichment facilities \u2014 have been attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran says it is threatened over accessing bombed sites<\/p>\n

Asked what it would take for Iran to continue negotiations with the U.S. and others, Araghchi said Iran\u2019s message on its nuclear program remains \u201cclear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s right for enrichment, for peaceful use of nuclear technology, including enrichment, is undeniable,\u201d the foreign minister continued. \u201cWe have this right, and we continue to exercise that, and we hope that the international community, including the United States, recognize our rights and understand that this is an inalienable right of Iran. And we would never give up our rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s government issued a three-day visa for the AP reporter to attend a summit alongside journalists from major British outlets and other media.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, also attended the summit and told the gathering that Tehran had been threatened over potentially accessing the bombed enrichment sites. Satellite pictures analyzed by the AP<\/a> since the attack show that Iran has not done any major work at the sites at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur security situation hasn\u2019t yet changed. If you watch the news, you see that every day we are being threatened with another attack,\u201d Eslami said. \u201cEvery day we are told if you touch anything, you\u2019ll be attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran had been enriching uranium up to 60% purity \u2014 a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels \u2014 after U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran\u2019s 2015 nuclear deal<\/a> with world powers in 2018. Tehran long has maintained its atomic program is peaceful, though the West and the IAEA say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program until 2003.<\/p>\n

European nations also pushed through a measure to reimpose United Nations sanctions on Iran<\/a> over the nuclear program in September.<\/p>\n

The IAEA\u2019s Board of Governors is set to meet this week and could vote on a new resolution targeting Iran over its failure to cooperate fully with the agency.<\/p>\n

But Araghchi left open the possibility of further negotiations with the U.S. should Washington\u2019s demands change.<\/p>\n

He told journalists at the summit that the U.S. administration\u2019s approach does not suggest they are ready for \u201cequal, fair negotiations to reach mutual interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have seen from the Americans so far has actually been an effort to dictate their demands, which are maximalist and excessive. We see no chance for dialogue in the face of such demands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran summit decries \u2018aggression\u2019<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Institute for Political and International Studies, affiliated with the country\u2019s Foreign Ministry, hosted the summit. Titled \u201cInternational Law Under Assault: Aggression and Self-Defense,\u201d the conference included papers by Iranian political analysts offering Tehran\u2019s view of the 12-day war in June, many seizing on comments from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz praising Israel for having done the \u201cdirty work\u201d in launching its attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s defensive response was remarkable, inspiring, historic and above all, pure,\u201d wrote Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour, an international relations professor. \u201cHow can one possibly compare Israel\u2019s dirty deeds to the noble and clean actions of the Iranian nation?\u201d<\/p>\n

Images of children killed by Israel during the war lined the walkway outside the summit, held inside the Martyr General Qassem Soleimani Building, named for the Revolutionary Guard expeditionary leader killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Iran finds itself in a difficult moment after the war. Israel decimated the country\u2019s air defense systems<\/a>, potentially leaving the door open to further airstrikes as tensions remain high over the nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, economic pressures<\/a> and societal change<\/a> continue to challenge Iran\u2019s Shiite theocracy, which so far has held off on making decisions about whether to enforce its mandatory hijab laws or raise the price of government-subsidized gasoline, both of which have sparked nationwide protests in the past. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York<\/a> and Outrider Foundation<\/a>. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s foreign minister said Sunday that Tehran is no longer enriching uranium at any…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":383828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[97,3489,3881,1578,396,69,25821,57,14235,83,3461,99,3462,127838,183409,50,80,15126,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-383827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","9":"tag-abbas-araghchi","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-associated-press","12":"tag-bombings","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-friedrich-merz","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-international-atomic-energy-agency","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-iran-government","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-israel-government","21":"tag-mohammad-eslami","22":"tag-mohammad-kazem-sajjadpour","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-qassem-soleimani","26":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115561567352950475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}