China Says Honors Iran’s Right to Enrich Uranium

“We respect Iran’s right to use nuclear energy, including the right of uranium enrichment,” Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said in a Sunday meeting with Rouhani, here in Tehran.

Jiechi also praised Iran’s new administration for exercising “prudence” to advance the recent negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva, and said, “Iran defended its rights in the talks and defeated the western side.”

Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) signed a six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear program after three rounds of intensive talks in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24.

The deal is intended to allow time to negotiate a comprehensive agreement on the nuclear program, with the aim of bringing a decade-long standoff over Iran’s nuclear program to an end.

In exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities and allow more inspection of its nuclear facilities, the six world powers have agreed to impose no new sanctions on Iran and to suspend some existing ones on its trade in petrochemicals, automobiles, gold and precious metals, civil aviation parts, and food and medicine.

The Chinese official further expressed Beijing’s willingness to boost its strategic, regional and international cooperation with Tehran, saying his country seeks to collaborate with Iran in the area of fight against terrorism and extremism, as well as peaceful resolution of the Syrian crisis.

President Rouhani, for his part, praised good cooperation between Iran and China in the recent nuclear talks in Geneva, and noted, “Iran’s nuclear activities are and will remain peaceful and Iran will not back down from its nuclear rights, including (uranium) enrichment.”

He also described bilateral relations between Iran and China as “broad, strong and strategic”, and voiced Tehran’s willingness to expand its ties with the Asian giant in diverse fields.