Iran’s Fordow enrichment plant will never close: MP
Iranian school girls pose with posters supporting Iran’s nuclear program during a rally in Tehran’s Azadi Square (Freedom Square) on Feb. 10, 2013.
A senior Iranian legislator was quoted on Sunday as saying Iran's uranium nuclear enrichment plant will never close, according to Reuters.
"Fordow will never be shut down because … our national duty is to be able to defend our nuclear and vital centers against an enemy threat," Alaeddin Boroujerdi told the Iran Students’ News Agency, the Jewish Press reported.
Boroujerdi, head of the legislature’s national security and foreign policy committee, also said the suggestion of shutting down Fordow was "meant to help the Zionist regime (Israel)."
Iran claims its nuclear program is for peaceful, energy-related purposes while world powers, including the US and Israel, fear Iran is working to develop nuclear weapons capability.
On Saturday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons.
“We believe that nuclear weapons must be eliminated,” Khamenei said. “We don’t want to build atomic weapons." However, he added that if Iran "intended to possess nuclear weapons, no power could stop us.”
Multi-nation talks with Iran are planned for Feb. 26 in Kazakhstan.
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