Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pledged that Tehran will not abandon its uranium enrichment, rejecting a key demand in a United States proposal aimed at resolving a long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme.
The comments were delivered in a speech on Wednesday as the US and Iran continue to negotiate the details of a possible new nuclear deal. The issue of uranium enrichment has remained a sticking point in the talks, with the US reportedly demanding a complete halt or low-level enrichment in exchange for the lifting of Western sanctions against Tehran.
“The US nuclear proposal contradicts our nation’s belief in self-reliance and the principle of ‘We Can,’” Khamenei said in his speech delivered on the commemoration of the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in 1989. (Aljazeera)