An adviser to Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, suggested in remarks published on Wednesday that Tehran might consider suspending atomic work, Reuters reported.Ali Akbar Velayati, quoted by French daily Liberation, said Iran had accepted suspension in the past but the move had not helped to end the dispute."But if we continue to be in favor of a peaceful resolution of this problem, no idea should be unacceptable, not for us or for anyone else," he said. "We have only got one red line: respecting our right to nuclear energy, which is guaranteed in the Non-Proliferation Treaty."
The NPT gives signatories the right to enrich fuel for atomic power plants.Velayati also told Italian newspaper La Repubblica that his country was prepared to negotiate over its nuclear program without renouncing its right."Negotiations on the nuclear program can be resolved without a crisis, given that we only want security, that of our country, of the region, and the world," he said.“We do not want military nuclear power, but everyone should know ... that our right to civilian nuclear power is a red line that we will defend without ceding anything."Velayati was Iran's foreign minister under influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.