Iran will make final decision on talks

A senior Iranian lawmaker says Tehran will make the final decision about the West’s call for holding negotiations with the Islamic Republic on its nuclear program.

“The West has called for holing talks with Tehran and the Iranian officials will make the decision about the issue,” spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Kazem Jalali said on Sunday.

He stressed that talks would definitely be constructive should be fair and purposeful and protect Iran’s nuclear rights, Mehr News Agency reported.

Jalali said that after the UN Security Council imposed the fourth round of sanctions resolution against Iran in June, member states of P5+1 – Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany – raised the issue of holding talks with Iran.

“They are still calling for negotiations with Iran,” he added.

Jalali noted that an Iranian parliamentary delegation has invited a European delegation to visit Iran in the near future and hold talks with senior Iranian officials.

The lawmaker expressed hope the visit would portray the real image of the Islamic Republic and clear misunderstandings.

The remarks came after Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said earlier in the day Tehran has never refused nuclear talks with the West.

“Iran had earlier raised the issue of negotiations on the nuclear case within the framework of P5+1 or the Vienna group,” Larijani said.

The Untied States and its Western allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, pressuring Tehran into abandoning its uranium enrichment program.

Iran has rejected the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it is entitled to continue its enrichment program under the full supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.