Ambassador: P5+1 should revive Iranian nation ‘lost’ trust

Iran’s Ambassador to Italy, Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini, has urged the P5+1 group to take seriously the issue of “reviving the Iranian nation’s lost trust” during the upcoming nuclear talks.

“If the Western parties follow the Istanbul pattern in [the upcoming] talks and demonstrate their good will to us, there will be a possibility of reviving their [Iranians] lost trust,” Hosseini told Italy’s official news agency, ANSA, on Friday.

The latest round of the talks between Iran and the P5+1 group — Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany — over Tehran’s nuclear energy program was held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on April 14. Both sides hailed the discussions as constructive.

They also agreed to hold the next round of the talks in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on May 23, 2012.

“The Istanbul negotiations pivoted principally on the approach of dialog and cooperation, and the [nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is a basis on which the rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran to have peaceful nuclear technology are recognized,” the Iranian diplomat added.

He further noted that the “unreal remarks” made by some officials of the P5+1 countries are “in contradiction to” the constructive atmosphere prevailing after the Istanbul talks.

The US, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran has repeatedly dismissed Western allegations over its nuclear activities, arguing that as a committed signatory to the NPT and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to pursue nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.