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Iran: Nothing left to discuss with UK if it demands 'zero enrichment'

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 27 May 2025 9:43 PM

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has warned that there would be no further ground for dialogue between Iran and the UK if London demanded that Tehran completely stop its peaceful uranium enrichment activities as its Western ally, the United States, does.

In a post on his official account on X, former Twitter, on Tuesday, the top diplomat acknowledged that the Islamic Republic had maintained "multilateral engagement" with the United Kingdom and other European members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- a 2015 nuclear deal.

Such interaction, he wrote, had so far taken place "in good faith," although, "the US continues to show no interest" in getting the European states involved in underway indirect talks between Washington and Tehran.

However, "if the UK position is 'zero enrichment' in Iran..., there is nothing left for us to discuss on the nuclear issue," Araghchi asserted.

The official cautioned that such demand on the part of London would stand in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which entitles member countries to peaceful uranium enrichment, and the UK's commitments to the JCPOA that similarly takes Iran's right to enrichment into account.

The remarks came after Peter Mandelson, the British ambassador to the United States, said during a speech at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. that "Britain strongly supports [US] President [Donald Trump]'s initiative in negotiating away these enrichment and related facilities in Iran."

The US, and its primary regional ally, the Israeli regime, have repeatedly called for an outright halt to the Islamic Republic's peaceful nuclear enrichment activities.

For its part, Tehran has resolutely defended its sovereign right to engage in nuclear enrichment for peaceful and civilian purposes.

Recently, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei described the American demand as "utterly wrong," asserting that the Islamic Republic did not require approval from any foreign entity to continue its enrichment activities.

Before Mendelson copied Washington's insistence, Britain -- alongside France and Germany, which are likewise members of the JCPOA -- had also repeatedly expressed "concern" regarding Iran's enrichment levels.

While recurrently alleging concern, the European trio has refused to acknowledge that Iran's surpassing its enrichment caps allowed in the JCPOA, has taken place in response to the US's leaving the agreement in 2018, and the same European states' failing to live up to their promise to restore the deal to its former status.

After the US's withdrawal, the threesome states failed to make good on their pledge to return Washington to the accord, and even followed in its footsteps by returning their sanctions against Iran and bringing the Islamic Republic under additional coercive economic measures.