Iran: Nuclear Standoff with West Not Affected by Domestic Politics

Iran’s lead negotiator Saeed Jalili said the outcome of the country’s next presidential election in June will not influence the talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany).

“There is a national consensus in Iran on how to proceed with the country’s nuclear program and the next president will vibrantly defend the rights of the Iranian nation,” Jalili said, addressing a press conference in Istanbul on Thursday.

Iran will hold the 11th presidential election on June 14, 2013.

Jalili, who is also the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), reiterated that the Iranian nation is entitled to the acquisition and use of the peaceful nuclear technology as an inalienable right, and that the big powers should recognize this right.

Jalili and Ashton met in Istanbul yesterday to follow up on the last round of talks between Iran and the G5+1 held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on April 5-6.

Meantime, the Iranian top negotiator described his last night talks with Ashton (who presides over the world powers’ delegations in the talks with Iran) as positive and useful.

“I had fruitful talks with Mrs. Ashton and we agreed to meet in the near future,” he said.

Last month, Iran and the G5+1 wrapped up two days and four rounds of intensive negotiations in Almaty before the delegations of the world powers demanded further consultations with their capitals.

The Iranian team was led by Jalili and the G5+1’s representatives were presided by Ashton.

Iran had announced a day prior to the start of the talks that it would enter the negotiations with the G5+1 with clear, groundbreaking proposals.

Following the Almaty talks, former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast described the meetings with the world powers in Kazakhstan as “positive”, and said Tehran is waiting for the opposite side’s response to its proposals.

“The two sides’ comments described as positive the start of straightforward and serious expression of views, and to take a correct step, our officials expressed their views and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) should now respond,” Mehman-Parast said at a weekly press conference in Tehran.

“We are (now) waiting for Mrs. Ashton’s response and her consultations with the G5+1,” he added.

Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, but they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations.

Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.
Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions and the unilateral western embargos for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

Tehran has dismissed West’s demands as politically-tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.

Tehran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA’s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.