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Iran defiant with nuclear talks set to begin today
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Zarif pledged that Iran will not relinquish its nuclear “rights” ahead of talks set to begin today to find a long-term solution to Tehran’s nuclear development.
Zarif met yesterday with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who heads the P5+1 delegation (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany), to discuss details of the latest negotiations between the two sides. Zarif told English-language Iranian official news outlet Press TV that, “What is important to us is reaching a final agreement based on the preservation of the Iranian nation’s rights and interests,” in apparent reference to what Iranian leaders have termed its “right to enrich.”
In November, the two sides agreed a six-month deal under which Iran halted its development of 20 per cent enriched uranium in return for limited sanctions relief. However, Iran was not required to dismantle any of its centrifuges, leaving the infrastructure for atomic development in place. The talks starting today are aimed at finding a longer-term solution.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a crowd in Tehran yesterday that although the talks “will continue,” he added, “I am not optimistic about the negotiations. It will not lead anywhere.” According to Reuters, a senior US administration official said that the negotiations are a “complicated, difficult and lengthy process.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a conference of American Jewish leaders yesterday that so far “Iran has given zero, or practically zero,” in negotiations while it “has received a great deal,” including “the nations that are cuing up … to do more business with Iran.”
In an opinion piece in Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, the UK’s Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould said that the UK and Israel “share the same unshakeable goal of preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon.” He assured that the UK is “not naïve, and, although we urge all sides to negotiate in good faith, we are not relying on good words, smiles or promises.”