Iran vowed yesterday to press ahead with its nuclear program even as it expressed readiness to resume talks about the controversial issue despite being slapped with tough new EU sanctions.
The EU imposed fresh sanctions on Iran’s key energy sector on Monday in a bid to halt its sensitive enrichment of uranium as well as restart talks about its atomic program. Canada followed suit and the US said the punitive steps would bite.
“Iran will resume nuclear talks with the West in September,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Islamic republic’s English-language Press TV.
But he added “Iran wants Turkey and Brazil to participate in the negotiations,” in the comments posted on the channel’s Web site from an interview late on Monday.
Brazil and Turkey refused to back sanctions against Tehran last month before the UN Security Council, where they are non-permanent members.
Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran “deeply regrets and condemns” the new EU sanctions.
“These sanctions will not help in resuming talks and will not affect Iran’s determination to defend its legitimate right to pursue a peaceful nuclear program,” Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
Among the EU measures ban the sale of equipment, technology and services to Iran’s energy sector and aims to hit activities in refining, liquefied natural gas, exploration and production, EU diplomats said. New investments in the energy sector were also banned.
Iran is the world’s fourth largest producer of crude oil, but imports 40 percent of its fuel needs because it lacks enough refining capabilities to meet domestic demand.
The country’s banking sector was also hit by restrictions, forcing any transactions of more than 40,000 euros (US52,000) to be authorized by EU governments before they can go ahead.
On Monday Iran responded to queries raised by the Vienna group of diplomatic powers — France, Russia and the US — over a nuclear fuel swap proposal by Brazil, Turkey and Tehran.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran was ready for “prompt talks without any preconditions” over the fuel swap deal.
Ahmadinejad had announced on June 28 that he was freezing nuclear talks for two months in retaliation for the fourth set of Security Council sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russia said yesterday that new EU sanctions on Iran undermined international efforts to resolve concerns over its nuclear program, tempering hopes of closer cooperation between Moscow and the West on the issue.
“This not only undermines our joint efforts to seek a political and diplomatic settlement around Iran’s nuclear program, but also shows disdain for the carefully calibrated and coordinated provisions of the UN Security Council resolutions,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The use of sanctions outside of the UN Security Council framework is “unacceptable,” the statement said.
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