DHAKA: Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran has never stopped 20 percent uranium enrichment, denying earlier claims of a temporarily halt.

Iran parliament’s website reported Wednesday, says france24.com.

‘Twenty percent uranium and nuclear plates are being produced inside the country and there has never been a halt in the production trend,’ Salehi was quoted as saying.

‘Nuclear plates for Tehran reactor are produced inside the country, and the needed fuel assembly is allocated for the reactor each month,’ said Salehi.

Earlier this month, conservative MP Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, spokesman for the foreign affairs committee, said Iran was temporarily halting enrichment to the 20 percent level.

But committee chairman Allaeddine Boroujerdi denied that on Saturday and Naqavi Hosseini later said he had been misquoted.

The enrichment programme is at the core of Iran’s dispute with world powers, who suspect it masks a drive for atomic weapons despite repeated denials by the Islamic republic.

BDST: 2222 HRS, OCT 30, 2013
RoR/RIS