FM Stresses Iranian N. Negotiators’ Firm Stance in Defending Nation’s Rights
(FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister and top negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that he and other members of the country's negotiating team will never withdraw even an iota from the nation's rights in their ongoing negotiations with the six world powers (the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany).
"We want nothing more than our rights because Iran's nuclear diplomacy is and will be based on the Supreme Leader's religious decree (fatwa) and also on the 100-percent peaceful strategic calculations," Zarif said, addressing a Nuclear Diplomacy Conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
He reiterated the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, and said, "We have never been a nuclear threat to any country and nuclear weapons are a threat to security."
The Iranian foreign minister reiterated that the country's negotiators managed to change the wrong impression of the other negotiating side about Iran and its nuclear program, and said, "This is crucial for Iran's future."
The top Iranian diplomat said that Iran's regional power has now grown in the last one and a half years that President Rouhani rose to power, reminding that ISIL and their supporters who intended to topple Iran's allies in Syria and Iraq have now failed and Iran has the upper hand in the region now.
"Today Iran is more powerful, more influential and less vulnerable than before in the region and they cannot act against our interests in the region anymore," Zarif said.
He noted that 84 percent of the Jewish community in the US now believe that the West should reach an agreement with Iran while according to an opinion poll by the Pew Institute conducted on May 18, 2012, 63 percent of the American people believed that the war was the needed option for dealing with Iran.
Zarif said the Jewish community's majority vote for a deal, and not war, with Iran shows Tehran's success in its diplomacy and a slap across the face of the Israeli premier who is still beating on the drums of war against the Islamic Republic.
The 10th and last round of negotiations between Iran and the six world powers was held in Vienna from November 18 to 24.
In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key issues.
After the last Monday talks, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and senior negotiator Seyed Abbas Araqchi announced that major differences were still in place between Tehran and the world powers, including the details of Iran's enrichment program and mechanisms for removal of the sanctions.
"The issue of enrichment and its limits, extent and capacity, as well as the mechanisms needed for the removal of sanctions are two key issues," Araqchi said.
"In addition, there are also several other issues that might not be among the key issues, but are sufficiently important and if they are not resolved, we will not reach any agreement," he added.
Noting that the negotiations are now being held in a more rational atmosphere, Araqchi said, "The result of the negotiations will be something which would meet our redlines and safeguard whatever we have, enrichment will continue and certainly all sanctions will be annulled in the form and sequence (that they have been imposed)."
Zarif and EU coordinator Catherine Ashton announced on November 24 that the talks had been extended until July 10, 2015, and the world powers had taken up to release $700 million of Iran's frozen assets on a monthly basis.