Iran: Final Deal Should Take Place in One Stage, Remove All Sanctions

Iran rejected the possibility of clinching a two-phased nuclear agreement with the world powers, and said any final deal should include the removal of all sanctions.

“Any agreement should be made in one single stage and it should include all details and generalities. All Iranian officials underscore this issue and the negotiating sides should also pay serious attention to this fact,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said on Wednesday.

She said beside technical issues, one of the serious subjects in the new round of talks being held in Montreux, Switzerland, is the removal of sanctions against Iran as any final deal with the world powers should include a total lifting of embargos.

Afkham underscored that the Iranian nation will stand firm against the excessive demands raised by the western states during the nuclear talks, and said, “Excessive demands cannot block Iran’s path to its goals.”

In relevant remarks in February, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined that Iran would never accept a bad agreement with the world powers, but the country was in favor of a single-phase comprehensive deal which would respect the Iranian nation’s inalienable rights and entail all details.

“I agree with an agreement if it can be struck, but I disagree with a bad agreement,” the Supreme Leader said in a meeting with the commanders and personnel of the Iranian Air Force and Air Defense in Tehran.

He pointed to the US officials’ remarks that “disagreement is better than a bad agreement”, and said, “We believe the same and we believe that not agreement is better than striking an agreement that would harm the national interests and pave the way for humiliating the great Iranian nation.”

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the efforts underway by the Iranians to remove the sanctions in their talks with the six world powers, and said, “If this happens and the enemy gives up the weapon of sanctions it will be very good, but if this doesn’t happen there are (still) many ways to slow down the impact of the US-led embargoes.”

The Supreme Leader reiterated that even if the sanctions were kept in place, their impact could be alleviated through paying appropriate attention to available means and industrious efforts.

The Leader further stressed his opposition to striking a deal over general issues and leaving the details for some other time in future, saying that a final agreement should include all the general principles and all the details together and should not leave anything for future.

Also last month, Ayatollah Khamenei warned of the arrogant powers’ plots to impede Iran’s progress in different scientific and technological fields, and said even if Tehran accepted all the demands of the world powers in the nuclear standoff, they would never remove their embargos against the country.

“Their main goal of such measures (sanctions) is humiliation of the Iranian nation and stopping the nation and Islamic Republic’s great move towards a new Islamic civilization and I believe that even if we accept the demands that they (want to) dictate on us in the nuclear issue, the sanctions will not be removed since they are opposed to the (Islamic) Revolution in essence,” Ayatollah said in Tehran, addressing a large number of visiting Iranians from East Azerbaijan province.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany) are negotiating to narrow their differences over Tehran’s nuclear energy program ahead of a July 1 deadline.