Iran not to leave negotiation table, insistent on 'nuclear rights': President Raisi

Tehran, Feb 8: Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has stressed that his country would never leave the negotiation table and is insistent on its right to develop nuclear technology for "peaceful" purposes.

Raisi made the remarks at a ceremony attended by foreign ambassadors in the Iranian capital of Tehran to mark the 45th anniversary of the victory of the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which falls on February 11, according to a statement published on Wednesday on the website of his office.

He noted that Iran had always been ready for the verification of the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities, adding that Iranian people have an "inalienable" right to use peaceful nuclear energy in areas, including medicine, industry and agriculture.

The Iranian President said the International Atomic Energy Agency had 15 times in its reports confirmed that there had been "no deviation" in Iran's nuclear activities, Xinhua news agency reported.

He added the West, by imposing sanctions, failed to prevent Tehran from working toward its objectives, and the US "maximum pressure" on the country had ended in "abject failure".

Iran signed a nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of sanctions on the country. The US, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.

The talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Vienna, Austria. Despite several rounds of talks, no significant breakthrough has been achieved since the end of the last round in August 2022.