Iran rejects illegitimate demands in nuclear talks: Zarif

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Tehran has never accepted illegitimate demands in nuclear talks with the P5+1 group.

Iran has stood up to illegitimate and humiliating demands by certain countries and has firmly rejected them, Zarif wrote in a letter to the foreign ministers of all world countries, expounding on Iran’s position in the nuclear talks between Tehran and the six states – Russia, China, Britain, France, the US and Germany.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has proposed practical, balanced and realistic solutions” to resolve the standoff with the West over the country’s nuclear program, Zarif wrote, adding, Iran has also shown a very “strong will and determination” to reach a “fair and wise agreement” with the West based on mutual respect and interests.

The Iranian foreign minister further stated that Iran and the six countries pursued a “common goal” under a deal dubbed “the Joint Plan of Action”, signed between the two sides in the Swiss city of Geneva in November, 2013.

He said the goal was aimed at “reaching an long-term comprehensive solution” agreed by both sides which guarantees that “Iran’s nuclear energy will be exclusively peaceful” and which “results in the complete removal of the sanctions [imposed against Iran] by the United Nations Security Council and the multilateral as well as multinational sanctions” against the Islamic Republic over the country’s nuclear program.

Zarif also noted that “as Iran does not need and is not in pursuit of nuclear weapons,” achieving the first part of the goal is not very difficult.

“The lifting of the entire sanctions is an indispensable part of every deal” between the two sides, Zarif wrote, describing the sanctions against Iran as “inhumane, illegal and unconstructive.”

While the United States and some countries have insisted on intensifying the sanctions regime against Tehran, “Iran has shown the required good will” in the talks by “fulfilling its commitments,” Zarif further noted.

He also gave assurances that “the comprehensive agreement is completely achievable”, naming political will and a forward-looking view as part of the key ingredients required for striking such a deal.

On December 17, nuclear negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 group wrapped up their latest round of talks on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The three-day Geneva discussions were held almost three weeks after Tehran and the six countries failed to clinch a final agreement by a November 24 deadline despite making some progress.

However, the two sides agreed to extend their discussions for seven more months until July 1, 2015. They also agreed that the interim deal they had signed in Geneva last November remain in place during the negotiations.