‘Defense never on Iran-P5+1 agenda’

A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator says the Islamic Republic will never accept to include the country’s defense capabilities in its nuclear talks with the P5+1.

“As we have repeatedly emphasized, the issue of Iran’s defense capability is not included in nuclear negotiations and Iranian officials will never accept to include this matter in the talks,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi told reporters on Wednesday.

“Iran principally believes that these negotiations are held within the framework of the nuclear issue and [the country] will not accept other topics to be raised,” he added.

Over the past weeks, American officials have repeatedly said that Iran’s missiles would be addressed under a final nuclear deal with Tehran.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany are working to hammer out a comprehensive deal following the Geneva accord. Experts from both sides met in Vienna, Austria, last week.

The next round of high-level talks between Iran and the six other countries is to be held in Vienna on March 17.

Takht-e-Ravanchi further dismissed as baseless and injudicious the US anti-Iran threats during nuclear talks between Tehran and the P5+1, warning that such moves will not help the advance of the negotiations.

In an interview with Bloomberg View on March 3, US President Barack Obama repeated his threat that “all options are on the table” regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

On the same day, US Secretary of State John Kerry told the annual conference of pro-Israeli lobby group, AIPAC, in Washington DC that the US approach toward Iran is not “trust and verify” but “verify and verify.”

“Our diplomacy is guided by a simple bottom line: No deal is better than a bad deal, and we absolutely will not accept a bad deal,” Kerry added.