Supreme Leader’s Advisor: Baghdad Talks Should Result in Removal of Sanctions

A senior advisor to the Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei expressed the hope that the positive trend of talks between Tehran and the six world powers in Istanbul would continue in Baghdad, and stressed that removal of the sanctions against Iran should be the least result of the upcoming round of negotiations.

“I hope that Baghdad negotiations should be complementary to the Istanbul talks,” Gholam Ali Haddad Adel who is also a member of the Iranian parliament told reporters in Tehran on Wednesday.

“Our minimum expectation is the annulment of the sanctions,” he underlined.

Haddad Adel also asked the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) to show a logical behavior during the upcoming talks in Baghdad “since Iran will never surrender to pressures”.

Also earlier, chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi had raised the same demand, reiterating that removal of the US and EU oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic should be on the agenda in talks between Tehran and the G5+1 in Baghdad.

“Given the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s stand is more powerful, the Saturday (April 14) negotiations were held under a good atmosphere and it was decided that annulling oil and banking sanctions against Iran will be discussed in the future negotiations,” Boroujerdi told FNA in April.

He reiterated that since Iran has managed to produce 20-percent-enriched uranium which was withheld by the western powers from Tehran, it enjoyed a superior position in the nuclear field in addition to the country’s improved internal stability.

Iran and the six world powers resumed negotiations in Istanbul on April 14 after a year of stalled talks and are due to continue their negotiations in Iraq’s capital city, Baghdad, on May 23.

Tehran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili headed the Iranian side, and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton led the delegations of the world powers.

Both Jalili and Ashton voiced satisfaction with the talks.

Jalili said after two rounds of fruitful talks with the six world powers that withdrawing sanctions against Iran should be a focal point in any future talks on cooperation between Iran and the world powers.

“It is of crucial importance that our (future) cooperation will entail reciprocal steps, that is, our nation’s trust should be built in the trend of talks and cooperation,” Jalili told reporters at a press conference after the second meeting with the representatives of the G5+1 in Istanbul.

He said the Iranian nation is only demanding “the very same rights enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)”, and reiterated, “Iran, as an active member of the NPT, should enjoy its rights alongside its undertakings.”

“We deeply believe that removal of sanctions, which is demanded by the Iranian nation, is one of the issues which should receive attention in the trend of talks on cooperation,” the Iranian top negotiator underscored.

Asked to express his view about the two rounds of talks with the world powers, Jalili said, “What we observed in the approach stated by the (Group 5+1) members today was an approach towards talks and cooperation and we consider this to be positive.”

“We have always stated that pressure and the language of threat is useless in dealing with the Iranian nation, but talks and cooperation can be a positive approach,” he added.