Senior MP: Iran Not Optimistic about Talks with US, but Shows Good Will

Iran has not pinned much hope on its current talks with the US and other world powers, but it continues negotiations with a good will in a bid to exhaust all possible ways of settling the nuclear standoff with the West, a senior Iranian legislator said Saturday.
“We are not optimistic, but we move forward; that is to say we move ahead with pessimism, but we show our good will,” Ali Motahhari told FNA on Saturday, commenting on the recent talks between Iran and the world powers, specially the US over the former’s nuclear issue.

He said Iran has started the new round of talks with the world powers to find a way to settle its nuclear deadlock with the West.

“Given the fact that we have made good progress in the field of nuclear energy and also play an influential role in the Middle-East, the Americans need us and (US President Barack) Obama is somewhat different from his predecessors; so it is now a good opportunity to hold nuclear negotiations to remove some of the cruel sanctions which have been imposed against us.”

Motahhari called for the removal of sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran, and said a large volume of Iran’s assets has been frozen abroad and Iran cannot transfer these funds to inside the country; “and annulment of the sanctions against the CBI can settle this problem”.

The United States imposed additional sanctions against Iran’s financial sector late in December 2011.

Obama authorized a law on New Year’s Eve imposing fresh sanctions on financial institutions that deal with the Central Bank of Iran, Tehran’s main clearing house for oil payments. The US has also persuaded the European countries to impose the same embargos against the CBI.

The extra US sanctions aim to squeeze Iran’s oil sales, most of which are processed by the CBI, although many even in the West believe that the move would prove futile.

During the last three years, Iran has been replacing dollar with other currencies in its trade with the outside world.

Late in November 2012, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued the needed permission to the Central Bank of Iran to open rupee accounts with two Indian banks, namely UCO and IDBI, as a long-lasting solution to the two countries’ payment problems.

Both accounts were opened in the respective banks’ Mumbai branches.

A top official of city-based UCO Bank said while payments for his country’s oil imports would initially be in rupees, it would be then converted into a separate currency, which was yet to be decided by the apex bank.

Russia, opposing oil sanctions against Iran, has long promoted the ruble as an international currency which could be used in bilateral settlements.