Iran warns will not give up enrichment despite US war threat

TEHRAN: Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war “is imposed on us”, its foreign minister said Sunday, defying pressure from Washington.

“Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear programme and for uranium enrichment,” Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran.

“Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behaviour,” he said, two days after he met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman.

Iran’s foreign minister declared that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf, two days after talks with Washington’s envoy.

“Their military deployment in the region does not scare us,” Abbas Araghchi said, after US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff visited the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the region.