Iranian president vows not to slacken over nuclear rights

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says his country will not slacken over the nation’s nuclear rights.

Talking to a group of high-ranking clergymen in Tehran, Rouhani said that his “adminstration will not step back an iota over the inalienable (nuclear) rights of the Iranian people and will do its utmost to deal with the issue logically and rationally,” according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

The remarks by the president followed the recent call by the U. N. nuclear watchdog for Iran’s engagement with the international community over its controversial nuclear program.

His words are also significant as Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif has announced he will meet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on the sidelines of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month to discuss the means to overcome the obstacles to solve Iran’s nuclear standoff.

Earlier, Iran also announced that a new round of talks with the IAEA will be held in Vienna on Sept. 27, the first since moderate Rouhani took office in August.

Rouhani said that he would conduct “serious talks” with the world powers and will be “transparent” over the country’s sensitive nuclear program.

“The West should know that success will not be achieved through threats and pressures on the Iranians,” Rouhani said on Tuesday, adding that “however, if they use the language of logic and rationality and observe respect as well as equal footing in the talks, the Iranian government will be ready to enter (serious) negotiations with them.”

Perhaps, the first round of nuclear negotiations will take place in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, which will be continued with the powers later in another place, he said.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said any negotiations that would be carried out in New York will serve as the introductory meetings to the upcoming official talks between Iran and the P5+1 group, namely the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.

After the victory of Rouhani in Iran’ s presidential elections, both the Iranian government and the six world powers showed interest in resuming nuclear talks. Their last round of negotiations held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in April, but the meeting did not produce practical results.

Western states have been long accusing Iran of developing nuclear weapon under cover of civilian nuclear program, but Iran says the suspicion is baseless.

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Posted by Tahir Khan on Sep 11 2013. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.