DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s foreign ministry on Thursday summoned the envoys of Britain, France and Germany over what it called a “misuse of the U.N. Security Council to hold a closed-door meeting” over Tehran’s nuclear programme, Iranian state media reported.
Britain warned on Wednesday that it would trigger a return of U.N. sanctions on Iran, if needed, to prevent it from getting a nuclear weapon as the Security Council met to discuss Tehran’s expansion of its stock of uranium that is close to weapons grade.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
However, the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned that its production of uranium enriched to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level, has recently jumped.
Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs.
The closed-door meeting at the U.N. was called by six of the Security Council’s 15 members – the U.S., France, Greece, Panama, South Korea and Britain.
The U.S. mission to the U.N. said in a statement after the Council meeting that Iran was “the only country in the world without nuclear weapons producing highly enriched uranium, for which it has no credible peaceful purpose.”
On Wednesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to dismiss a U.S. proposal for negotiating over its nuclear programme.
State-run media on Thursday quoted the foreign minister as not ruling out talks.
(Reporting by Dubai newsroom; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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