BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 17. The renewed sanctions imposed on Iran by the United Nations (UN) Security Council have no legal foundation, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said, Trend reports.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran today, Baghaei emphasized that Iran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful in nature.
“All of Iran’s activities related to the nuclear program are within the framework of the safeguards agreement and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
The logic behind the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] is that Iran voluntarily takes a series of steps to build confidence regarding the peaceful nature of its nuclear program. In return, the sanctions imposed on Iran should be lifted,” he said.
To note, at the behest of France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the UN Security Council convened a private meeting on March 12 to discuss Iran's escalation of highly enriched uranium production.
Prior to that convening, on March 3, Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the IAEA, mentioned during the IAEA Board of Governors' meeting that Iran has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity by 93 kilograms, from 182 kilograms to 275 kilograms compared to the previous quarter. Iran remains the only non-nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium to this level, raising significant concerns.
To recall, by the end of 2020, the Iranian parliament decided to pursue a strategic plan in the nuclear sector to counter the sanctions, leading to a suspension of additional steps and the Additional Protocol as per the nuclear agreement.
Consequently, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) faced a reduction in monitoring capabilities by 20–30 percent.
Iran has officially affirmed that its strategy is not to pursue the development of an atomic bomb and that it does not support the production of weapons of mass destruction.
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