Iran Won’t Accept Limits Without Deal, Says Zarif

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Republic will not accept any limitations on its nuclear program if the P5+1 group of world powers fails to reach a deal with the Islamic Republic.

 “I don’t know why people do not want to have an agreement. Because if we don’t have an agreement, then we don’t accept anything. Then we go back to the posturing of more pressure on Iran and more centrifuges. We’re not going to develop nuclear weapons. But if they put more pressure on us, they won’t get more transparency,” Zarif said in a Wednesday interview with NBC News.

The top Iranian diplomat, however, said that Iran is “willing to accept limitations” on its nuclear activities “in order to reach an international agreement. We are willing to accept extra transparency measures in order to ease the concerns that we believe are misplaced. We believe these are the concerns that have been fanned by the hysteria that has been fanned by people like [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and company.”

Referring to the Monday remarks made by US President Barack Obama that Iran should freeze sensitive nuclear activity for at least ten years if it wants a deal, Zarif said, “I’m not negotiating publicly. We are discussing various measures, both transparency measures, as well as limitations – voluntary limitations on our nuclear program… with 5+1, basically… primarily the United States, but other members of 5+1.”

 “We believe these are not necessary. But we are prepared to take… to go the extra mile in order to convince the international community that our nuclear program is exclusively peaceful,” he said.

Highly technical discussions

 “And we are engaged in very serious, high technical, discussions in which many nuclear physicists are involved, including the heads of… our atomic energy organization, and the US Secretary of Energy, both of them nuclear physicists, who are trying to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program will always remain peaceful. And we have no problem with that, because we want our nuclear program to be… we know that it’s peaceful.”

Illegal sanctions

The Iranian foreign minister reiterated that the sanctions imposed on Iran by the US and its allies are “illegal.”

 “Sanctions were there. I mean we considered them illegal. We considered them ill placed. But those who believed in sanctions believed they were there to reach an agreement. Now, if we have an agreement, which we don’t yet, we’re trying to, if we can [have] an agreement, then why you need sanctions?” Zarif said.

IAEA Report confirming transparency of Iran’s nuclear program

On the other hand,  Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency underlined that the IAEA’s recent report on Iran’s nuclear program verified Tehran’s full transparency in its nuclear program.

“The IAEA’s recent report shows the country’s goodwill and strong determination to reach further agreements with the UN nuclear agency,” Najafi said, addressing a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors on Wednesday night.

He reiterated that on March 2, the IAEA once again verified lack of any diversion towards non-peaceful purposes in Iran’s declared nuclear material.

“Concerning safeguards implementation in Iran, the agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said in his address to the agency’s Board of Governors in the Austrian capital city of Vienna on Monday.

An IAEA team is planning to visit Tehran later this month to hold technical talks with senior officials of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

“The IAEA and Iran have agreed to hold a technical meeting in Tehran on March 9, 2015,” the IAEA said in a statement.

The IAEA delegation will be headed by IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Safeguards TeroVarjoranta.

The last technical meeting between the two sides was held in November last year.

PRESS T.V, FNA

R.S