No Talk on Iran’s Values in Nuclear Negotiations: President
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reaffirmed on Sunday that the nuclear talks with world powers have nothing to do with the country’s values and principles.
“Neither they nor we discuss the ideals and principles at the negotiating table… The basic to the issue of foreign policy are interests, not the principles and ideals,” President Rouhani said in an economic conference in Tehran on Sunday.
The president said the main purpose of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and six world powers (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) is to bridge the gap between the two sides, each making its own specific demands.
Pointing to an interim nuclear agreement Iran and the Group 5+1 (also known as the P5+1 or E3+3) signed in Geneva in November 2013, President Rouhani said a temporary halt on a special type of nuclear activities has not by any means questioned the country’s principles.
Iran’s ideals have their roots in determination and hearts, not in the centrifuge machines for uranium enrichment, he explained.
Based on the Geneva interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action), the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to suspend its 20% enrichment for a period of six months.
The two sides wrapped up a week of intensive nuclear talks in Vienna on November 24 without reaching a long-awaited deal they were supposed to hammer out by the self-imposed November 24 deadline.
Negotiations between Iran and the sextet aim to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
Diplomatic negotiations are scheduled to resume on January 15.
