Prime Minister Netanyahu at his government's weekly cabinet meeting. Photo: Screenshot.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu asserted Sunday that a discussion on the issue of whether or not Iran “is willing to give up on enriching uranium to 20%” is “unimportant,” being as the country still possesses the capacity to quickly enrich uranium t0 90%.

“Iran is willing to give up on enriching uranium to 20% and therefore a discussion on this issue is unimportant,” he said, at the start of his government’s weekly cabinet meeting. “The importance of the issue became superfluous in the wake of the technological improvements that allow Iran to enrich uranium from 3.5% to 90% in a number of weeks. Pressure on Iran should be increased because it is continuing enrichment even as it negotiates.”

Netanyahu’s remarks came as Iran and six world powers, known as the the P5+1, are engaged in negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.

Last Thursday the Iranian parliament website cited conservative MP Hossein Naqavi Hosseini as saying about the country’s nuclear enrichment that “There is no production at all … as right now there is no need for the production of 20 percent (enriched) uranium.”

The following day, UN nuclear watchdog officials said they had no evidence to substantiate the Iranian claim.

On Saturday the country’s state news agency IRNA quoted Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee as saying that “Enrichment to 20 percent is continuing.”

The next P5+1 meeting with Iranian negotiators is scheduled for November.