The UN Security Council should stop its sanctions on Iran for uranium enrichment activity, Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh said here Wednesday.
He told reporters when attending IAEA council meeting that the six parties on Iranian nuclear issue -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- have all expressed the hope that Iranian nuclear issue could "be solved through direct dialogues."
U.S. President Barack Obama recently expressed his willingness to carry out a direct dialogue with Iran on the nuclear program. Since IAEA council meeting commenced on Monday, the six parties on Iranian nuclear issue have also proposed "a comprehensive solution to Iranian nuclear issue by diplomatic means."
However, these countries also noted that if Iran stops its uranium enrichment activity, which has been carried out for over two years, it will drive UN to lift its sanctions and help improve the economic and political relations between Iran and the international community, Xinhua reported.
On the same day, Soltanieh also criticized the remarks of some westerners that Iran can produce nuclear weapons because it owns enriched uranium. He stressed that Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment center is under IAEA's supervision all the time. He also pointed out that enriching uranium doesn't mean producing atomic bombs, and in the world "many countries produce tons of this kind of material."
Some westerners including the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen have said that Iran has already owned 1, 000 kilos low-enriched uranium, which is enough to produce an atomic bomb.