US will not end old hostility to Iran: FM Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the old US hostility towards Iran will not end even if the Islamic Republic’s nuclear issue is resolved.

“The age-old enmity of the US toward Iran will not end even if the nuclear issue is settled because they (Americans) want to change Iran from an ideological country to a different one,” Zarif said in a meeting with head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Ezzatollah Zarghami, and his deputies in Tehran on Tuesday.

He added that the main component of power in modern and lasting diplomatic equations is relaying on people.

The Iranian foreign minister pointed to the forthcoming talks between Iran and the six major world powers, saying, “At the end of the negotiations, all unfair and cruel sanctions against Iran must be lifted and the nation’s nuclear rights must be asserted.”

“As we have always said, we will prove that we have never sought to produce atomic weapons, nor will we ever do so,” the top Iranian nuclear negotiator pointed out.

Zarghami, for his part, said the IRIB will continue support for Iran’s diplomatic efforts.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, France, Britain and the US — plus Germany wrapped up their latest round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna, Austria, on February 20 and are set to meet again in the Austrian city on March 17 to continue their talks.

The two sides’ negotiations are aimed at reaching a final agreement to fully resolve the decade-old dispute over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.

During their talks in the Swiss city of Geneva last November, Iran and the Sextet of world powers inked an interim deal on Iran’s nuclear energy program. The deal took effect on January 20.