WORLD / MID-EAST
Iran says the West wants to prevent it from producing nuclear fuel
Published: Aug 21, 2022 10:04 PM
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 the 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.

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, former US president Donald 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.