TEHRAN: Saeed Khatibzadeh has categorically ruled out the transfer of any enriched nuclear material from Iran to the United States, following controversial remarks by Donald Trump on the issue.
“I can tell you that no enriched material is going to be shipped to United States,” Khatibzadeh said in an interview with the Associated Press on Saturday.“This is a non-starter and I can assure you that, while we are ready to address any concerns that we do have, we’re not going to accept things that are nonstarters,” he added.
Earlier, Trump had claimed that the US would go into Iran and “get all the nuclear dust,” a statement widely interpreted as referring to Iran’s highly enriched uranium.
Khatibzadeh further noted that following the previous round of negotiations held in Islamabad earlier this month, what he described as the United States’ “maximalist” demands have been preventing the scheduling of another round of talks.“We are still not there yet to move on to an actual meeting because there are issues that the Americans have not yet abandoned their maximalist position,” he said.
The official added that Iran is seeking the finalisation of a “framework agreement” before proceeding to another round of negotiations. On April 7, prior to the Islamabad talks, Trump had announced a two-week pause in what Iran described as unprovoked aggression.
At the time, he said a 10-point ceasefire proposal put forward by Iran was a “workable basis on which to negotiate” and could serve as the main framework for future discussions with the Islamic Republic.