CARACAS, Venezuela, March 13 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mohammad Khatami says his country is ready to temporarily suspend its uranium enrichment program.
However, he insisted Iran has a right to nuclear technology, CNN reported Sunday.
"We have accepted postponing the activities of uranium enrichment in a voluntary way and only temporarily, even though we have no obligation," he said during a visit to Caracas, Venezuela. "We are doing this for moral reasons. "We are ready to cooperate with the world to give more certainty that Iran is not moving toward the creation of nuclear arms."
The statement came one day after the United States - at the request of Britain, Germany and France -- agreed not to block Iran's application to join the World Trade Organization.
But the three countries told Iran they would send the dispute over nuclear technology to the U.N. Security Council if Iran failed to fulfill its international agreements, including a promise to halt uranium enrichment.
However, Cyrus Naseri, an Iranian negotiator, told CNN the United States action of dropping opposition to Iran's entrance into the WTO "is really not something so significant that we could even discuss it as a tradeoff for anything at all."
