Hujjat al-Islam Seddiqi: Iran not beholden to US

Iran is not beholden to the United States in the nuclear talks with six world powers over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program, says Hujjat al-Islam Kazem Seddiqi.

It is the Americans that have “usurped our rights,” said senior religious figure Hujjat al-Islam Kazem Seddiqi in a sermon to worshippers during weekly Friday Prayers in Tehran.

“The US has frozen Iran’s assets and has imposed unacceptable and cruel sanctions on us to cripple us; now, it seeks to drag out the negotiations,” the senior cleric added, reported Rasa.

He noted that Iran favours a “win-win outcome” in the nuclear talks.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Hujjat al-Islam Seddiqi lashed out at the West for its double-standards regarding the nuclear issue.

“They (the West) themselves are in possession of thousands of atomic warheads and have equipped Israel with such types of warheads, but when it comes to us seeking a peaceful nuclear program, they want to take it (this right) from us with bullying, and [then] give it back to us [themselves],” he noted.

The top cleric stressed that Iran’s negotiating team enjoys the support of the Iranian people, adding that Tehran will not back down from its right to a civilian nuclear program.

In their last round of talks, Iran and six world powers – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany – wrapped up a week of intense closed-door nuclear negotiations in the Austrian capital of Vienna on November 24. The talks aimed to tackle the remaining obstacles that exist in the way of reaching a final agreement.

At the end of the talks, the two sides decided to extend their discussions for seven more months. They also agreed that the interim deal they had signed in the Swiss city of Geneva last November remain in place during the remainder of the negotiations until July 1, 2015.