Senior Negotiators Underline Peaceful Nature of Iran’s N. Program
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Two senior Iranian nuclear negotiators stressed that the country’s nuclear program has no military intent.
Addressing the annual meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Rome, Italy, on Thursday, Seyed Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi elaborated on Iran’s nuclear policy and reiterated that the country’s peaceful nuclear program is free from any military dimensions.
The two Iranian deputy foreign ministers added that the Iranian Supreme Leader’s Fatwa against the development of weapons of mass destruction confirms the peaceful nature of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities.
The two diplomats attended the meeting prior to leaving Rome for Tehran. They were in the Italian capital to take part in a disarmament conference.
Over the past days, they held a number of separate bilateral meetings with delegates representing the US, France and Russia in order to narrow differences ahead of a high-level meeting among the political directors of the seven nations, slated for June 16-20 in Vienna.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (alternatively known as the P5+1 or E3+3) inked an interim deal on Tehran’s nuclear program in Geneva last November, which came into force on January 20. The interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action) stipulates that over the course of six months, the parties will draw up a comprehensive nuclear deal which will lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
The upcoming negotiations in Austria are aimed at drafting a comprehensive deal to resolve the decade-long standoff over Tehran's peaceful nuclear energy program.
