Iran to continue 'peaceful' nuclear activities despite sanctions: Atomic chief

Tehran, Sep 26 (IANS) Iran's Atomic Chief Mohammad Eslami has said that despite the unilateral cruel sanctions, the country will continue "peaceful" activities in the field of nuclear science and technology to promote the well-being of the Iranian people.

Eslami, President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), made the remarks on Monday while delivering a speech at the 67th General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the Austrian capital Vienna, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency.

Iran will continue the peaceful design and development of nuclear research reactors, accelerators, and irradiation systems as planned, and is committed to increasing its nuclear electricity generation to 20,000 megawatt per year by 2040, he added.

He said Iran stays committed to its obligations under the safeguards agreement Iran reached with the IAEA and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has done its best to enable the agency to easily carry out its verification activities of the country's nuclear programme, Xinhua news agency reported.

Thus, he added, Tehran seriously expects the IAEA to maintain neutrality and professionalism in its verification reports on Iran's activities, adopting a realistic approach in this regard, and close the case pertaining to a number of differences between the two sides as soon as possible.

Iran signed the 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.