Iran says nuclear rights non-negotiable
President Ahmadinejad quoted as saying, 'Our nuclear cooperation will be done within the UN nuclear watchdog's framework.' Nuclear cooperation with Iran is beneficial to West, he adds
Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday the country's nuclear rights were not negotiable, the student news agency ISNA reported.
"The Iranian nation's nuclear rights are not negotiable and our nuclear cooperation will be done within the UN nuclear watchdog's framework ... Nuclear cooperation with Iran is beneficial to the West," ISNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.
US President Barack Obama said on Sunday time was running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to build bombs.
Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
A draft deal brokered by the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75% of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor.
Tehran says it prefers to buy reactor fuel from foreign suppliers rather than part with its low enriched uranium, that can be used for bombs if enriched further.
