Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 12
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
Iran's top nuclear official believes that the technical issues have complicated the nuclear negotiations between Iran and P5+1.
Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi said that the nuclear negotiations are in a crucial stage, Mehr News Agency reported Feb.12.
Salehi said, "I am hopeful that nuclear agreement would be reached in scheduled time, but the prediction of the results is really hard."
Iran's top nuclear official added that there is no choice but interaction in nuclear issue.
Iran and P5+1 agreed in November 2014 to extend the nuclear talks to June.30. According to the agreement, the sides should reach a political accord in March and reach the comprehensive agreement by self-imposed deadline on June 30.
However, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced last week that he doesn't agree with a "two-stage accord" in the Islamic Republic's nuclear case.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who is leading the nuclear talks with P5+1, (the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany) group announced on Feb.11, "I am following the same guidelines in the nuclear talks that the Supreme Leader said."
Iran 's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also said Feb.11 that Iran is not after buying time in the nuclear talks and any agreement can be reached in a single stage.
The Associated Press reported last week citing unnamed diplomats saying that Iran and the U.S. are negotiating a compromise that would let Iran keep much of its centrifuges but reduce their enrichment potential.
Currently, Iran possesses 19,000 IR1 and 1,000 IR2 centrifuges and about half of them are active. Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas has been pumped into these centrifuges for enrichment.
IR1 centrifuge capacity for uranium enrichment is 0.8-1.2 SWU, IR2 - 4-5 SWU. There are also more powerful centrifuges, for example, IR8 with the capacity of 24 SWU, but Iran hasn't activated the powerful centrifuges yet.
Edited by CN