Vice-Speaker: Iran to Continue Talks with G5+1 within Parliament’s Specified Framework

Vice-Speaker of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Hossein Aboutorabi-Fard underlined that Tehran will go ahead with its nuclear negotiations with the six world powers (the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) but on a path specified by the legislature.
“We will conduct the negotiations within the format defined by the parliament and we hope to continue the path with the power that the nation has demonstrated,” Aboutorabi-Fard told reporters on the sidelines of an Islamic Awakening Conference in Tehran on Tuesday.

The vice-speaker said Iran’s nuclear activities is based on a strategy which calls for the dismantlement and annihilation of all nuclear weapons in the region in a move to have nuclear-free Middle East.

Aboutorabi-Fard reiterated Iran’s right of access to nuclear energy, and said, “The Iranian nuclear sites are active and Arak heavy water facility is moving on its normal course.”

On Thursday, Iran and six world powers agreed on an agenda for negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program and will meet again next month in Vienna, a senior Iranian official said after two days of talks in the Austrian capital.

This indicates an early step forward in the elusive search for a settlement of the decade-old dispute, even though the sides remain far apart on how to resolve it and both Iran and the United States have publicly stated it may not be possible to reach a final agreement.