Cleric Urges West to Stop Looking for Excuses in Iran Nuclear Talks


Cleric Urges West to Stop Looking for Excuses in Iran Nuclear Talks

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian cleric said the country’s negotiators have already offered all options to assure the world of Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program, calling on the Western parties to stop looking for excuses and being distrustful.

Addressing a huge gathering of worshippers at Tehran’s Friday prayers, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani recommended that parties engaged in nuclear talks with Iran to seize the opportunity as the Iranian diplomats are negotiating “fairly and rationally.”

Iran has repeatedly made it clear that it is not after a nuclear weapon, the cleric reiterated, adding that the West’s mistrust of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is nothing but an excuse.

Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani also underlined that Iran’s negotiating team is standing firm and will not give in to “bullying”.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Following an interim nuclear deal signed in Geneva in November 2013, two deadlines for a final, comprehensive deal have been missed, and now a third one is looming on July 1.

With the Iranian new year holiday of Nowruz approaching, diplomats from Iran and the six powers have launched a decisive round of diplomacy in the Swiss city of Lausanne since Sunday to pave the way for a landmark nuclear agreement.

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