TEHRAN, Nov 30: Iran's top national security official said on Tuesday that Tehran had only agreed to a temporary freeze of its nuclear fuel activities and would never totally abandon its uranium enrichment work.
"Contrary to what the Americans pretend, the Islamic republic has not renounced the nuclear fuel cycle, will never renounce it and will use it," Hassan Rowhani told a news conference.
On Monday the UN atomic agency adopted a toned-down resolution on Iran's nuclear programme after Tehran agreed in a deal with Britain, France and Germany to freeze all uranium enrichment activities.
Iran and the European trio are to begin talks in December on a package of rewards to Iran for suspending uranium enrichment, the key process using centrifuges to make fuel for nuclear reactors - or the explosive core of atomic bombs.
"The suspension will only last as long as the negotiations. It should be a question of months and not years," Mr Rowhani said. "Their duration must be reasonable, should not be prolonged, and we should not feel during the negotiations that they are trying to gain time" in order to extend the duration of the freeze, he said.
Iran says its nuclear programme is a peaceful, civilian effort but the United States insists there is a covert weapons plan. The IAEA is continuing to investigate Iran, as its director Mohamed ElBaradei has said that while no diversion of nuclear materials for weapons purposes has been detected, he could not rule out the possibility of covert activity. -AFP
