Iran-US Ties Not on Agenda of Tehran-Sextet Talks: Negotiator
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - An Iranian deputy foreign minister emphasized that the talks between Tehran and the six major world powers have focused on nuclear issues exclusively, stressing that negotiation about Iran-US relations is not on Tehran's agenda.
"Now, we do not have any agenda for the ties with the country (the US)," Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for American and European Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi, who is also a member of the country's negotiating team, announced in a television talk show on Tuesday night.
He reiterated that Tehran has so far held talks with Washington only within the framework of nuclear negotiations.
“Our country’s Foreign Minister Dr. (Mohammad Javad) Zarif has also said in a meetign with his American counterpart John Kerry that he (Zarif) has no agenda for negotiations with Kerry over any topic other than the nuclear issue,” Takht Ravanchi underlined.
He went on to say that a possible talk of relations between Iran and the US might be taken into consideration in the future, provided that “the US shows sincerity and wins our trust.”
Pointing to the upcoming negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany), slated for March 17 to 20 in Vienna, the Iranian diplomat stated that the talks will be based only upon the Geneva nuclear deal.
On November 24, 2013, Iran and the Group 5+1 signed a six-month deal on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Geneva after several rounds of tight negotiations. Based on the interim deal (the Joint Plan of Action), the world powers agreed to suspend some non-essential sanctions and to impose no new nuclear-related bans in return for Tehran's decision to freeze parts of its nuclear activities and to allow more inspection of its nuclear facilities.
The interim deal has taken effect since January 20.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Takht Ravanchi reiterated that Iran has entered the nuclear talks with “goodwill and full trust”, and stated that Tehran would never agree that the other side raises any subject outside the Geneva deal.
Turning to the Islamic Republic’s right to continue its research and development activities under the Joint Plan of Action, the deputy minister stressed that the country would never stop short of carrying out research work relating to its peaceful nuclear activities.
In relevant remarks earlier this month, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi had stressed that Iran would lose nothing in nuclear technologies.
“Iran will not lose anything in the nuclear technology,” Salehi said, addressing a group of military personnel here in Tehran on February 10.
He also noted that the Geneva deal has entitled the Islamic Republic to continue research and development activities in the nuclear sphere without any conditions.
