Iran says West wants to prevent it from producing nuclear fuel, having scientific power

Tehran [Iran], August 21: The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said on Saturday the West has always sought to prevent the country from turning into a producer of nuclear fuel to deprive it of power, according to semi-official Mehr news agency.
Making the remarks in an address to a meeting with the Iranian education sector's directors, Mohammad Eslami added the West has always sought to keep Iran an importer of nuclear fuel.
He said Western countries are using the pretext that Tehran is after developing a nuclear bomb and opposing Iran's production of heavy water as they know that it is a manifestation of scientific power.
Eslami noted the West is against Iran's entry into the field of modern and emerging technologies as such an achievement will place the country at the top echelon of powerful countries.
The AEOI chief said the Western countries signed the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with Iran aiming to destroy the country's entire capacities and capabilities, stressing that during the talks to revive the deal, they wanted Tehran to obliterate its capacities and achievements like what happened in 2015.
"We are faced with such illogical ideas and bullying behaviors," Eslami said.
Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions on the country when it signed the nuclear deal with world powers in 2015. However, Trump pulled Washington out of the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its commitments under the pact.
The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna, but were suspended in March this year because of political differences between Tehran and Washington.
The latest round of the nuclear talks was held in Austria's capital Vienna in early August after a five-month hiatus. On Aug. 8, the European Union put forward a "final text" of the draft decision on reviving the JCPOA.
On Monday, Iran announced that it had presented its written response to the EU's draft of the potential nuclear agreement, noting that if the U.S. reaction features realism and flexibility, the agreement will be achieved.
Source: Xinhua