{"id":103614,"date":"2025-05-04T13:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T08:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=103614"},"modified":"2025-05-04T13:08:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T08:08:22","slug":"iran-defends-uranium-enrichment-right-amid-western-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pakistan(National Times)- TEHRAN: Despite mounting Western concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons and after the postponement of talks with the United States, Tehran on Saturday defended its &#8220;right&#8221; to enrich uranium. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that &#8220;Iran has every right to possess the full nuclear fuel cycle,&#8221; citing Tehran&#8217;s longstanding membership in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). \u201cThere are several NPT members which enrich uranium while wholly rejecting nuclear weapons,\u201d Araghchi said. Under the NPT, signatory states are obliged to declare their nuclear stockpiles and place them under the supervision of the UN\u2019s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The United States and other Western countries have long accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons \u2014 a claim Tehran denies, insisting that its atomic programme is solely for civilian purposes. Iran and the United States have engaged in nuclear talks since April 12, their highest-level contact since Washington withdrew from a landmark deal with Tehran in 2018, during Donald Trump\u2019s first term as US president. A fourth round of talks initially scheduled for Saturday has been postponed, mediator Oman said earlier this week, citing \u201clogistical reasons\u201d. In a Thursday interview with<em>\u00a0Fox News<\/em>, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Iran to \u201cwalk away\u201d from enrichment, saying that \u201cthe only countries in the world that enrich uranium are the ones that have nuclear weapons.\u201d Iran currently enriches uranium to 60% purity \u2014 far above the 3.67% limit set in the 2015 deal with the United States and other world powers, but below the 90% needed for weapons-grade material. The stockpile remains a concern for Western powers. On Monday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Iran was \u201con the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons\u201d and said UN sanctions could be reimposed if Tehran\u2019s actions threatened European security. Iran rejected the comments from France \u2014 a signatory to the 2015 nuclear deal \u2014 as \u201csimply absurd\u201d. Araghchi has previously called Iran\u2019s right to enrich uranium \u201cnon-negotiable\u201d. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that the enriched material \u201ccan be easily dissolved\u201d or \u201cshipped out\u201d of Iran. Last month, Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani described the transfer of enriched material as a \u201cred line\u201d. Rubio said Iran should allow inspections of its nuclear facilities, including by US experts. Tehran has insisted that the talks with Washington be solely focused on the nuclear issue and the lifting of sanctions, ruling out negotiations on its regional influence and military capabilities. Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a credible deal must \u201cremove Iran\u2019s capacity to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons\u201d and prevent the development of ballistic missiles. Araghchi responded by accusing Netanyahu of \u201cdictating\u201d US policy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pakistan(National Times)- TEHRAN: Despite mounting Western concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons and after the postponement of talks with the United States, Tehran on Saturday defended its &#8220;right&#8221; to enrich uranium. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that &#8220;Iran has every right to possess the full nuclear fuel cycle,&#8221; citing Tehran&#8217;s longstanding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pakistan(National Times)- TEHRAN: Despite mounting Western concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons and after the postponement of talks with the United States, Tehran on Saturday defended its &#8220;right&#8221; to enrich uranium. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X that &#8220;Iran has every right to possess the full nuclear fuel cycle,&#8221; citing Tehran&#8217;s longstanding [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-04T08:08:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-04T08:08:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-670x370-90.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/\",\"name\":\"Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-670x370-90.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-04T08:08:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-05-04T08:08:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-670x370-90.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-670x370-90.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2025\/103614\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Iran defends uranium enrichment right amid Western concerns - Nation","og_description":"Pakistan(National Times)- TEHRAN: Despite mounting Western concerns that Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons and after the postponement of talks with the United States, Tehran on Saturday defended its &#8220;right&#8221; to enrich uranium. 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