Baku-APA. A senior Iranian lawmaker suggested Monday that the West fully lift sanctions against the Islamic republic in return for Iran's suspension of 20-percent uranium enrichment, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
"In exchange for the suspension of 20-percent enrichment by the Islamic republic of Iran, all sanctions adopted against Iran should be annulled," Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Iran Majlis' (parliament) Foreign Policy and National Security Commission was quoted as saying.
The Western governments "should not expect a halt on 20-percent enrichment as long as they push ahead with sanctions and pressure on the people of Iran," said Boroujerdi.
The Iranian lawmaker, however, said Iran is entitled to enrich uranium to even higher levels of purity to power its ocean-going ships, adding that "The fuel used by these ships is not 20-percent (enriched uranium) and it might be 40 or 50-percent. This right should be preserved for us."
The fresh round of talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1-- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany-- will start in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
Iran and the West are locked in a bitter dispute over its nuclear activities, with the latter accusing Tehran of developing nuclear weapons under a civilian cover, a charge Iran has consistently denied.