Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told Swiss deputy foreign minister on Monday that it is Iran’s right to enrich uranium on its soil.

Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told Swiss deputy foreign minister on Monday that it is Iran’s right to enrich uranium on its soil.

"The mastery of civil nuclear technology, including the enrichment of uranium, on Iranian soil is the absolute right of Iran," Zarif insisted during a meeting in Tehran with the visiting Yves Rossier.

"The events of recent years have shown that the approach of threats and sanctions have not ensured the interests and objectives of the other party, and the continuation of this approach is the repetition of past mistakes which cannot prevent Iran from mastering civilian nuclear technology," he added.

Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States -- are set to resume negotiations in Geneva on October 15 to try to find a solution to the nuclear issue.

The talks would be the first talks between Iran and the six since the election in June of moderate President Sheikh Hasan Rouhani, who has called for a speedy settlement of an issue that has been stalled for eight years.

At meetings in Almaty this year, the six proposed Iran suspend uranium enrichment at the 20 percent level it says it needs for a medical research reactor, and to halt enrichment at its underground plant at Fordo.

In return, they would ease some sanctions on trade in gold and petrochemicals.
Earlier on Sunday, Zarif said the offers were now history and that the group "should come to the negotiating table with a new approach".