US Secretary of State Rubio on Thursday called on Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment activities and long-range missile development, and said Tehran should allow Americans to inspect its facilities, as a fresh round of nuclear talks was postponed
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday called on Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment activities and long-range missile development, and said it should allow Americans to inspect its facilities, as a fresh round of nuclear talks was postponed.
Rubio’s comments underscore the major remaining divisions in talks between the countries to resolve the long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, with US President Donald Trump threatening to bomb Iran if there is no agreement.
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“They have to walk away from sponsoring terrorists, they have to walk away from helping the Houthis (in Yemen), they have to walk away from building long-range missiles that have no purpose to exist other than having nuclear weapons, and they have to walk away from enrichment,” Fox News quoted Rubio as saying in an interview on the Hannity programme.
Iran has consistently rejected demands to halt its missile programme or uranium enrichment, insisting that its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes. While enrichment can produce fuel for civilian power plants, it can also be used to develop material for nuclear weapons.
On Thursday, a senior Iranian official told Reuters that the fourth round of scheduled nuclear talks, which were to be held in Rome on Saturday, had been postponed. The of