US Seeking to Impair Talks on Iran's Nuclear Program: MP
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The US is seeking to undermine the negotiations between Iran and six world powers over the country’s nuclear program through raising excessive demands, a senior Iranian lawmaker said.
“We think that the Americans are looking for any possible way to make the talks reach a deadlock,” Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini told the Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday.
The US move to raise excessive demands in the course of the nuclear talks, including the demands on the issues irrelevant to Iran’s nuclear program and placing restrictions on Tehran which run counter to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), indicates that the Westerners, particularly the US, are not after an agreement, the Iranian lawmaker stated.
He went on to say that given the excessive demands, reaching a deal is impossible.
Earlier on Wednesday, Iranian foreign minister and senior negotiator voiced the country’s preparedness to address international concerns about its peaceful nuclear program, but at the same time voiced Tehran's opposition to other parties' efforts to impose demands on Iran in the course of talks.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not need anything beyond its rights and is ready to allay the concerns of the international community, but we believe that imposition is no way to hold talks,” Mohammad Javad Zarif said after arriving in Vienna to attend a new round of nuclear talks with world powers.
Diplomats representing Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, the US, Britain, China, France and Germany) are in the Austrian capital to hold talks for reaching a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear energy program before a July 20 deadline.
Under an interim deal, signed by the seven nations in November 2013, the parties should draw up a comprehensive nuclear agreement over the course of six months that would lead to a lifting of the whole sanctions on Iran.
This is the sixth round of nuclear talks between Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) since February.
Coordinated by the European Union, the whole negotiations are aimed at resolving the decade-long standoff on Iran’s nuclear energy program.
