The comments come ahead of meeting later this month between his Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on restarting negotiations on the Islamic republic’s controversial nuclear ambitions.
‘Our government will not give up one iota of its absolute rights’ on the nuclear issue, said Rowhani, a reputed moderate, repeating a mantra frequently used by his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Soon after his election as president in June, Rowhani said he wanted ‘serious’ talks with world powers to resolve Western suspicions that Iran’s nuclear drive is cover to build a bomb despite repeated denials by Tehran.
The two sides have failed to achieve a breakthrough in years of talks, with Iran - during Ahmadinejad’s two-term presidency - refusing to make any concessions on sensitive activities in the nuclear programme, notably enrichment. That has led to several rounds of international sanctions being slapped on the Islamic republic, crucially targeting its financial and oil sectors, choking the economy and stoking a raging inflation.
The last round of talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 of world powers ended in Almaty in April with an impasse.