Iran's chief negotiator for upcoming nuclear talks Abbas Araqchi said Sunday that Iran will neither ship out its enriched uranium nor stop uranium enrichment activities, state IRIB TV reported.

Uranium enrichment is Iranians' "redline" in the negotiations and "we will not slacken an iota over Iranians' rights pursuant to the international regulations," Araqchi was quoted as saying.

"Of course, we will negotiate over the level and the volume of enrichment," he said, adding that "shipping the (enriched) materials out of the country is our redline" as well.

The P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany -- and Iran met twice in Almaty, Kazakhstan in February and April. Their talks ended without tangible results.

In the previous talks, the group asked Iran to suspend its high- grade uranium enrichment and close the underground bunker of Fordow where Iran enriches uranium to 20 percent.

In return, they offered to relieve some of the sanctions on Iran's petrochemical industry and its trade in precious metals. However, Iran did not accept the proposal, urging them to completely lift the sanctions.

The P5+1 and Iran will resume talks on the controversial nuclear program in Geneva on Oct. 15-16.

Araqchi, who is also the deputy foreign minister for legal and interactional affairs, said Sunday "we will attend the talks very seriously and will act to achieve an obvious objective to be accepted by the parties."

He said the Iranian foreign minister will attend the opening session to explain the country's proposal ... "and I will lead the talks thereafter."

On Saturday, semi-official ISNA news agency reported that Iran will put forward a three-stage proposal in the upcoming nuclear talks.

The package, if agreed upon at the first stage, will automatically commit the other party to "the recognition of the uranium enrichment right on Iran's soil" as the objective of the negotiations, said ISNA without referring to its source. 

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