TEHRAN -- Iran has the technical capability to produce an atomic bomb but has no intention of doing so, Muhammad Eslami, head of the country’s atomic energy organization, said on Monday, according to the Fars news agency.
Eslami reiterated comments made by Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in July.
“As Mr. Kharrazi mentioned, Iran has the technical ability to build an atomic bomb, but such a program is not on the agenda,” said Eslami.
Iran is already enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, far above a cap of 3.67% set under Tehran’s now tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the nuclear pact, under which Iran curbed its uranium enrichment work in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.
Iran has responded to top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell’s proposal aimed at salvaging the nuclear accord, and seeks a swift conclusion to negotiations, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator said on Sunday.
Borrell said he had proposed a new draft text to revive the deal.
The broad outline of a revived deal was essentially agreed in March after 11 months of indirect talks in Vienna between Tehran and U.S. President Joe Biden administration.
But talks then broke down over obstacles including Washington’s refusal to give guarantees that no U.S. president will abandon the deal, the same way Trump did.
In his interview with Fars, Eslami said that Iran has a constructive interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since all Iranian nuclear capacities are based on the NPT and safeguards agreements.
The philosophy behind the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or simply the JCPOA, was for Iran to answer all the vain questions put before the country, Eslami said, adding that’s why the JCPOA was agreed upon in a way that it limited Iran’s nuclear capacity and required Iran to accept intense monitoring on its nuclear activity to remove the questions.
All possible military dimension (PMD)-related false accusations made against Iran were rescinded when the JCPOA was signed, the official further said. The Western side, however, is raising the same false accusations once again, he added.
He said that the accusations have their origin in MKO and Zionist fabrications, just as they have been repeating the allegations for almost 20 years.
It is not acceptable for Iran to be pressured through such vain allegations, he said, adding the accusations forced Iran to turn off all cameras installed under the JCPOA so that the other side understands that they shouldn’t raise again the same accusations that have been closed for years.
He went on to say that if the other side is determined to rejoin the JCPOA, they should not raise vain allegations regarding a case that has been closed, and if they don’t want to rejoin the JCPOA, they’d better not waste both sides’ time.