Irani defence minister: Iran ready to meet concerns over nuclear program

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan on Friday said Tehran is ready to remove alleged concerns about its nuclear program. The Iranian minister said that Tehran is determined to address concerns about its nuclear program within the framework of international regulations, while insisting on its national interests. He reiterated that in case of existence of determination on the western side, the nuclear talks will yield good results. Early in September, Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, in his meeting with Masahiko Komura, the special envoy of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Iran, said if the G5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) refrains from making up excuses, the Iranian administration is ready to reciprocate confidence-building measures and conduct “real negotiations without preconditions”. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always acted within the regulations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and will continue to do so,” Rafsanjani added. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to produce electricity so that the world's fourth-largest crude exporter can sell more of its oil and gas abroad. Tehran also stresses that the country is pursuing a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. The US and its western allies allege that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program while they have never presented corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations against the Islamic Republic. Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical. Iran has so far ruled out halting or limiting its nuclear work in exchange for trade and other incentives, saying that renouncing its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) would encourage the world powers to put further pressure on the country and would not lead to a change in the West's hardline stance on Tehran. Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the Southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the Southern port city of Bushehr. Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA's questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities. In May, Iran and the six world powers wrapped up their 4th round of talks after two days of intensive negotiations in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Iranian officials have always shrugged off the sanctions, saying that pressures make them strong and reinvigorate their resolve to further move towards self-sufficiency. Russia unlike the western members of the G5+1 reiterates on the necessity for recognition of Iran's right of uranium enrichment. The senior Russian officials have on several occasions emphasized the need for progress in Iran's nuclear case and the relevant negotiations on the basis of mutual cooperation and respect.