Rouhani: Government Has Support of Supreme Leader, Nation in Nuclear Talks

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that the government has the support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the nation in nuclear talks with the West, according to IRNA.

He was responding to criticism of the opponents lobbying to withdraw from the nuclear talks.

The president said that the political parties can express their views democratically, but, the government will not allow them to sabotage the nuclear deal struck on Novermber 24.

President Rouhani said that he got manadate from the nation in the presidential election on June 23 and permission from the Supreme Leader to go ahead with nuclear talks with the western governments.

The President said that representatives of the government are currently working with representatives of the western governments to reach a Comprehensive Agreement on the dispute over the national nuclear program.

On domestic policy, the President said that nothing is more important than unity, intimacy and cooperation among the people.

The President said that the government advocates democracy and the democratic decision making allowing the people to speak out their grievances.

ˈToday, the people have become closer to each other and political parties tolerate each other more than before,ˈ Rouhani said.

In light of national unity, the nation will put behind all the difficulties.

Final nuclear agreement likely to be signed in July –  Gary Sick

Meanwhile, an American Middle East analyst has said that the final nuclear deal between Iran and the G5+1 would probably be signed in July.

Signals coming from both sides indicate that the final agreement could be signed by July 20, Gary Sick told IRNA in an exclusive interview which was published on Wednesday.

Sick, who served on the staff of the US National Security Council under three US presidents (Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan) noted that President Barack Obama hoped to use the achievement as a key point in the US Congress midterm election in 2014.

The academic who is also a specialist on Iran, made the remarks while commenting on the ongoing nuclear talks between experts of Iran and the world six big powers (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) in New York.

Experts from Iran and the six countries resumed their negotiations in New York on Tuesday on the sidelines of the third session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

The expert-level talks are co-presided by head of the Iranian nuclear negotiating team Hamid Baeidinejad, who is director general for political and international security affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, and Stephen Clement, an aide to the European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

Participants in the ongoing talks are exchanging views on details of the final agreement and discussing its technical issues to present it to the official meeting, Sick told IRNA.

The US president is interested to have the job done as soon as possible, Sick added.

R.S